PLANT

Decaisnea fargesii, also called the blue sausage fruit, blue bean bush or dead man's fingers, belongs to the Lardizabalaceae family and is native to Nepal, Tibet and China. It is a deciduous shrub that grows up to 4 m in height, but can eventually reach 8 m.

FRUIT

The fruit of the Decaisnea Fargesii is generally eaten fresh, i.e. eating the jelly-like inner pulp with its characteristic sweet taste similar to watermelon or banana. It has no particular properties apart from the high pectin content of the fruit.

POSITION

The plant is extremely frost-resistant, especially in adult plants (resistance to -15 °C).
The plant is well adapted to distinctly windy and cold winter climates; there have been difficulties with cultivation in warm and very wet winters (e.g. in England), where the plant in such conditions tends to switch, even if only partially, to the vegetative phase in winter, and is therefore vulnerable to subsequent frosts; it is not damaged by constant wind and cold, however.

MATURATION

October/November