Hovenia dulcis

Now this is something really special!

A unique and very, very fast growing, no-care fruit tree with medicinal qualities. Sounds almost too good to be true, this Livingseeds introduction is something seldom seen in South Africa. We hope to change this. The Japanese Raisin tree is a deciduous, extremely hardy tree growing to about 10m in height. It can grow as fast as Eucalyptus spp. under the correct conditions, reaching six meters in as little as three to four years, and it can fruit at three meters high!
The fine-grained wood is of high quality, making this a species of special interest in craft wood, agro-forestry, but this is truly the least of this multi-facetted sustainability champion.

The tree bears huge quantities of the strangest looking “fruit” in Autumn and early Winter. Looking like a tangle of succulent, soft brown twigs with hard berries on the end, these are swollen receptacles, and are one of the sweetest things you have ever tasted! The flavour is somewhere between hanepoot raisins and dates, perhaps even a hint of banana, with a sugar content of up to 42%!

Fruit can be dried and stored, baked into the literally best sweet bread types imaginable (such as “date” bread”), used as a substitute to both raisins and dates in almost any recipe (they replace sugar in malva pudding gorgeously for instance), can be boiled down to a syrup, used to brew and infuse traditional medicinal wines and liquors, etc.

Extracts of the young leaves and seeds can be processed into a honey substitute and various plant parts and extracts of the tree are known to have  antidiabetic, anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and hepatoprotective activity in Chinese traditional medicine, and is especially prized in alcoholic intoxication and hangover treatment. Dried green whole fruiting bodies are brewed into a tea, famously known as Hovenia tea, the active ingredient, dihydromyricetin being a potent detoxification agent for the easiest home hangover remedy.

Standard packet contains approx. 10 seeds

No petite packets for this variety