Silk-tassels & Aucubas
What are they?
The family Garryaceae currently consists solely of the genera Aucuba and Garrya. Aucuba are sometimes known as 'spotted laurels' because of the leaf appearance of the one species that is popular in cultivation. But they are not related to any of the other laurels - though they have glossy, evergreen leaves - and have confused botanists as to their true relationships for a long time. They have been placed in their own family (Aucubaceae) or in the dogwood family (Cornaceae) but more recently were put into the Garryaceae, which really seems peculiar considering they have no morphological similarities to that family in any of their parts.
Where are they found?
These plants grow as garden ornamentals or amenity plants and are frequently planted in urban open spaces and churchyards. They may occasionally be found as relics of old gardens or where garden waste has been thrown out.
Identification
Silk-tassels are readily identified when in flower in early spring. Forms of Aucuba with spotted leaves are distinctive and easily identified. Green-leaved plants could be mistaken for other evergreen species but the opposite (not alternate) leaves and the distinctive flowers should identify them from other, similar groups.
Wavy-leaved Silk-tassel Garrya elliptica
Introduced from western USA as a garden ornamental and occasionally planted as an amenity shrub. Flowers February to March. An evergreen shrub to 5m in height but often much less. Plants are dioecious (i.e. male and female flowers are carried on separate plants) but cultivated plants seem always to be male, grown for their very long catkins, which are shorter in female plants.
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Japanese Aucuba Aucuba japonica
(Spotted-laurel) Introduced from Eastern Asia as a garden ornamental and widely planted as an amenity shrub. Flowers March to April. An evergreen shrub to 5m in height but often much less. Thick, leathery, evergreen leaves with remotely toothed margins may be green or, more often, variously splashed with yellow spots. Male and female flowers are carried on separate bushes, the males held in more elongate, open heads and the females later producing bright red berries.
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