''Chimonanthus praecox'', also known as wintersweet and Japanese allspice, is a species of flowering plant in the genus '' Chimonanthus'' of the family Calycanthaceae,

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to China. The plant is known as ''làméi'' () in

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

. The plant is also grown in Iran, where it is called ''gol-e yakh'' () or "ice flower" in Persian. It is a vigorous 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 ...

growing to tall with an erect trunk and leaves long and broad. Its strongly scented pendant flowers, produced in winter (between November and March in UK,) on bare stems, have 15-21 yellow or pale green-yellow, tepals, the inner ones usually with purplish red pigments. Chimonanthus praecox Arboretum Beograd.jpg, A&B: flowers; C: foliage; D: hypanthium; E: longitudinal section of hypanthium; F: fruit; G: terminal leaf buds; H: seedling 船宿寺の蝋梅御所市五百家 Wintersweet blossoms in Senshukuji 2012.1.18 - panoramio.jpg, Winter flowering Frutti Chimonanthus praecox.jpg, Leaves and fruit This plant is cultivated in gardens, producing valued flower colour in the dormant season. The cultivars ''C. praecox'' 'Grandiflorus' and ''C. praecox'' 'Luteus' have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's

Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...

. The plant is not closely related to

allspice Allspice, also known as Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or pimento, is the dried unripe berry (botany), berry of ''Pimenta dioica'', a Canopy (forest), midcanopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America, ...

, ''Pimenta dioica''.

Cultural use

''C. praecox'' is a common motif in traditional Persian poetry, literature, and music. A more modern example of ''C. praecox'' in Persian music is

Kourosh Yaghmaei Kourosh Yaghmaei ( fa, کورش یغمایی also spelled as Kourosh Yaghmaee; born 3 December 1946) is an Iranian singer-songwriter, composer and record producer, who started his career in the early 1970s. Regarded as one of the greatest Persian ...

's ''

Gol-e Yakh ''Gol-e Yakh'' (Persian language, Persian: گل‌یخ; ''Ice Flower'', also Wintersweet) is the debut solo Studio album, studio album by Iranian singer-songwriter and guitarist Kourosh Yaghmaei. The album was released in 1973 by Caltex Records, C ...

''.

References

External links

* * * Calycanthaceae Flora of Central Asia Flora of China {{Laurales-stub