In the upper south of China, the exquisite flowers of the Chinaberry tree, which are also unusual, appear in late April or May. Part lavender blue or purple, striking in clusters, they are quite fragrant. Emerging after the leaves are well developed, the loose clusters are half-gathered into the green foliage, and the leaves and flowers together are a vivid, delicate mosaic of billowing green and amethyst. Pale yellow drupes, more commonly known as berries, form the fruits, which hang in loose clusters and remain on trees. They are soft at first, wrinkled, and persist throughout the winter, often remaining until spring. Some of them remain even during the second summer.

Chinese mulberries are not very popular with birds, some species feed on the berries, but usually only when food is scarce. Rarely, if ever, are large herds seen feasting on, as they often do, the berries of holly, dogwood, and cedar. Even in harsh winters, when food is hard to come by, the Chinaberry Bird Cafe may still be offering its wares. Robins probably feed on these drupes more than other birds. Sometimes they apparently “get nervous” about eating too many. Squirrels can sometimes be seen busy ripping and splitting the fruits, eating the seeds and dropping the shells.

To humans, these berries are considered poisonous, but they are sometimes used in China as a fever medicine and disinfectant and, at least in the past, as a medicine to expel worms from cattle. As well. The Chinese make incisions just below the bark, collecting the sap to use as a refreshing drink. In some of the southeastern European countries, the hard, ribbed seed stone is cleaned and used to make rosaries. Thus a distant tree, which may offer shade and rest to Orientals near some Chinese temple or roadside shrine, may also provide a rosary with which a Catholic in Europe can tip his bead and “pray the rosary” in some roadside shrine. And could the Chinaberry also be a mystery tree? At least the one photographed by the Chinese shrine has been for me.

I have a photo with 110 berry clusters on the tree. I have often wondered why. No botanist or tree expert I’ve discussed it with has been able to tell, and unfortunately. Dr. Wilson is no longer alive. Even in India, according to botanist Dr. Troup, the fruits remain on the trees until the following season. It may be, a famous southern botanist suggested, that this particular tree had the peculiar characteristic of shedding its berries early. That may be the answer, but it deepens the mystery.