Scientific name Forsythia × intermedia | Cultivar Forsythia × intermedia Rank Hybrid | |
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Hybrid parentage F.viridissima. × F. suspensa var. fortunei. Origin Göttingen Botanic Gardens, Germany, 1878 Similar Forsythia, Weigela, Deutzia, Cornus alba, Mock‑orange | ||
Forsythia × intermedia, or border forsythia is an ornamental deciduous shrub of garden origin.
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Description
The shrub has an upright habit with arching branches and grows to 3 to 4 metres high. The opposite leaves turn yellowish or occasionally purplish in the autumn before falling. The usually pale-yellow flowers are produced on one- to two-year-old growth and may be solitary or in racemes from 2 to 6.
Origin
The hybrid is thought to be a cross between Forsythia viridissima and F. suspensa var. fortunei. A plant of seedling origin was discovered growing in the Göttingen Botanic Gardens in Germany by the director of the forestry botanical garden of the Royal Prussian Academy of Forestry in Münden, H. Zabel in 1878. Zabel formally described and named the hybrid in Gartenflora in 1885. It was introduced to the Arnold Arboretum in the United States in 1889.
Cultivation
The hybrid is best suited to a position with full sun or partial shade and is drought-tolerant. Like some other forsythias, it is one of the earliest or even the earliest shrub to bloom in humid continental climate, well adapted to temperature changes, blooms with bright yellow flowers, that are noticeable even in twilight. This makes forsythias widely cultivated in gardens, parks and various green parts of European towns, with Forsythia x intermedia hybrid being the most popular among forsythias.
Cultivars include:
Pinoresinol biosynthesis
The first dirigent protein was discovered in Forsythia intermedia. This protein has been found to direct the stereoselective biosynthesis of (+)-pinoresinol from coniferyl alcohol monomers.
