Saphora understock?

[Forsoothe!]

I had a Pagodatree (Saphora japonica) that struggled and eventually died over five years. It was grafted on something which I can't ID. Here a photo of the foliage. It has dark green new branches that are greatly stippled. The foliage is sort of a match to a New Zealand species which is not hardy to USDA Zone 6, probably only certainly hardy to zone 8, so it's not a match. I have an air-layer from last year that I wintered over in the greenhouse where it did not loose its leaves in winter. I intentionally left the crown that had a lot of other small suckers that died over winter, but this year has many that are six feet tall. What is it?

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

Did you hit any botanical references? Wikipedia is pretty reliable as far as botany goes. History from Wikipedia is always questionable, but botany is usually pretty good.

From Wikipedia: Sophora japonica was moved to genus Styphnolobium along with 3 or 4 other species. It is now called Styphnolobium japonicum. If your understock is not S. japonicum there is a good chance the understock is the Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, & Arkansas native Styphnolobium affine, often called Coralbean or Eve's Necklace. Seeds are purportatively poisonous. Here Wiki fails with incomplete description and no photos of S. affine.

But if you hit Jepson's or the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower websites, you should be able to get good descriptions of various Styphnolobium and Sophora species to sort through and decide which you have.

 

[Michael P]

The new leaves and green twig do look like S. affine.

 

[Forsoothe!]

Styphnolobium affine

Could be. The literature is lacking.