Chinese Parrotia or Chinese Ironwood. This rather obscure species of Parrotia, when shown in a Japanese botanical reference book, has much showier flowers than the more familiar P. persica. The flowers are apetalous (without petals) with only stamens, and even these make quite a show with their bright gold filaments topped with showy amber to gold colored anthers, but our original plant has yet to flower. I don't know what age a plant has to attain before it begins to flower. It was brought to England by the famous plantsman Roy Lancaster, who received this clone from Mikinori Ogisu, the well-known Japanese botanist, both of whom I have met. Notice from the pictures below how our stock plants take on a deep burgundy foliage color in late summer, even when the surrounding plants are still fully green. This color, which persists for a couple months, will retain its fall color longer than any other deciduous plant that I have ever seen. From this burgundy fall color, the leaves slowly turn a brilliant red, as seen by the pictures. The brightest reds were taken in mid September here in mid zone 8, and this color will persist for two months longer. Here in the Deep South, its colors are far more vivid than any Parrotia persica that I have ever seen. Visitors are often asking what this plant is out in the field when seeing it in its gaudy fall colors. As a young plant, it has a rather spreading growth habit, but as it gets older, it will become more upright, hence one may need to stake it when planting. It was previously described as Hamamelis subaequalis and Shaniodendron subaequalis until DNA work determined its relation to the genus Parrotia, and it was not correctly identified until 1992. This plant has only recently been introduced to the Western horticultural scene. Specimens growing in their natural habitat in China are from 20-30 ft. in height with the largest having 15 inch diameter trunks. They are described as having "its bark exfoliating in a dramatic way—shedding jigsaw-puzzle-shaped plates of old, blackish brown bark to expose conspicuous patches of greenish white bark below." Apparently it is quite cold-hardy, because small specimens growing at the Arnold Arboretum in Massachusetts have been unhurt by the cold.
Zones 6-9 at least, maybe even zone 5
