:''Decaisnea Lindl. is a synonym of

Tropidia (plant) ''Tropidia'', commonly known as crown orchids, is a genus of about thirty species of evergreen terrestrial orchids in the family Orchidaceae. They have thin, wiry stems with two or more tough, pleated leaves with a flowering spike at the top of ...

, an orchid genus.'' ''Decaisnea'' Hook.f &Thomson, (猫儿屎属 mao er shi shu) known commonly as dead man's fingers, blue bean plant or blue sausage fruit, is a genus of flowering plant in the family Lardizabalaceae. It is native to eastern Asia, from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

west to Nepal and south to

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

. The genus consists of one or two species, depending on

taxonomic Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification. A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...

opinion. ''Decaisnea insignis'' (Griffith) Hook.f. & Thomson was described from Nepal, and is sometimes restricted to the plants occurring in the Himalaya, with Chinese plants distinguished as ''

Decaisnea fargesii ''Decaisnea fargesii'', the blue sausage fruit, blue bean shrub or dead men's fingers, is a member of the family Lardizabalaceae, and is native to Nepal, Tibet and China. It is a deciduous shrub which grows to 4 m tall and broad, but may achieve ...

'' Franchet. The only cited distinction between the plants from the two regions is the fruit colour, yellow-green in ''D. insignis'' and bluish in ''D. fargesii''.Bean, W. J. (1973). ''Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles''. John Murray.Rushforth, K. D. ''Trees of Britain and Europe''. HarperCollins. This is of little significance and the two are now combined under the older name ''D. insignis'' by some authors.''Decaisnea''.
Flora of China. ''Decaisnea'' are deciduous

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s or small trees growing to 5 to 8 meters tall with trunks up to 20 centimeters in diameter. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are pinnate, 60 to 90 cm long, with up to 25 leaflets each up to 15 cm long and 10 cm broad. The flowers are produced in drooping

panicle A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. (softcover ). Some authors distinguish it from a compound spike inflorescence, by requiring that the flowers (and fruit) be pedicellate (having a single stem per flower). The branches of a panicle are of ...

s 25 to 50 cm long. Each flower is 3 to 6 cm wide with greenish-yellow sepals and no petals. The fruit is a soft greenish-yellow to blue-black pod-like follicle up to 10 cm long and 3 cm diameter. It contains a transparent, glutinous, jelly-like pulp containing numerous (Usually around 40) flat black seeds about a centimeter wide. The pulp is edible however the seeds are not. The flavor of ''D. fargesii'' fruit pulp has been described as sweet and similar to watermelon, and the texture described as "gelatinous".Levine, K
Plant Profiles: ''Decaisnea fargesii''.
Talking Plants. National Public Radio, Washington, D.C. 2003. ''D. insignis'' fruit has been described as "bland" and jelly-like.Botany Photo of the Day: ''Decaisnea insignis''.
UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research.

Cultivation and uses

''Decaisnea'' is grown as an ornamental plant for its foliage and decorative fruit, bright blue in many cultivated specimens. Most plants in cultivation derive from Chinese seed and are commonly grown under the name ''D. fargesii''. The plants are successfully grown in cooler temperate climates, and in fertile, well-drained soil. They are tolerant of temperatures as low as . The fruit is valued for eating by the Lepcha people of Sikkim.''Decaisnea fargesii''.
Missouri Botanical Garden.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q135174 Lardizabalaceae Ranunculales genera Flora of China Flora of Myanmar Flora of Nepal Taxa named by Joseph Dalton Hooker Plants described in 1855