Iron Tree or Persian Parrotia (Parrotia persica)

Zone 5b / Parrotia persica: autumnal fireworks!

Family: Hamamelidaceae
Native Range: Northern Iran, Caucasus

The Parrotia persica, or iron tree, is a modest-sized tree with a very spreading and drooping habit and flamboyant autumn colors. A remarkable, beautiful and rustic species to enhance our gardens. The Parrotia persica, commonly called "Iron tree" or "Iron wood" for the hardness and density of its wood, or Persian Parrotia, is a species of the Hamamelidaceae family, native to northern Iran and from the eastern Caucasus. The Hamamelidaceae include many very popular shrubs and small trees, often remarkable for their autumn foliage, such as Witch Hazel, Fothergilla, Corylopsis and Liquidambar.

And it is through its splendid late-season foliage that Parrotia persica stands out! Medium-sized tree, 5 to 10 m high: 2 m at 5 years old, 4 m at 10 years old and up to 20 m in its natural environment. Quite hardy (up to -26°C), it has a stocky, sometimes multiple, smooth, pinkish-brown gray trunk which exfoliates into rounded plates. Its habit is very spreading, often wider than tall and drooping. Its leaves, elliptical, clear and shiny green, measure between 6 and 10 cm and are lined with small teeth on the upper part. They turn yellow, orange, red and purple when autumn comes, offering a resplendent multicolored fireworks display (read: Why the leaves turn colored in autumn). Its flowers are apetalous, that is to say without petals, presented in small bouquets of red stamens, surrounded by brown bracts. They flower, directly on the branches, at the end of winter, in February-March, before the leaves appear and reveal, after flowering, small yellow or orange fruits.

Very decorative, the Parrotia persica is a tree of medium size, but of imposing stature, used rather as an isolated subject, to illuminate the garden in the autumn period. It can be surrounded by small shrubs, in a bed of perennials or even planted in a container.