Question

Which plant is described by these clues? A shoot bent to breaking will not snap cleanly: the bark tears away as a tough {bast} cord, the same fibre that makes this shrub's kin a raw material for handmade paper. The flowers carry no petals at all: the waxy four-lobed trumpet is the {calyx} itself, with eight {stamens} set in two stacked tiers down its throat. A pollinated flower ripens into a soft one-seeded {drupe}, red and berry-like, though cultivated plants seldom set any fruit at all. The genus borrows the ancient Greek name of the bay tree, the tree a river god's daughter became to escape Apollo, for shrubs whose leathery leaves merely resemble it. Wild plants grow in mountain forest and on shaded rocky slopes from southern China through Taiwan to Vietnam. Glossy leathery oval blades 2 to 3 inches (5 to 7 cm) long are set singly along the stems and hold right through winter. Rosy-purple buds open pink and white, each tube barely 0.4 inch (10 mm) long, ten to fifteen of them packed into a tight head at every shoot tip. Its species epithet is simply the Latin word for perfumed. It blooms from January into March, and on a still winter day the scent reaches you 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 m) before the plant does. Chinese herbal practice put its acrid roots and flowers to work on sore throats, backache and wounds, though every part is poisonous to eat and the sap can blister skin. Gardeners accept that it may drop dead without warning after a decade of health for the sake of that midwinter perfume, and the gold-margined form is the one most nurseries sell.

Accepted Answer

Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata'

Name That Plant #113