PlantPeers
Back to Catalog
No image available
Rosaceae FAMILY

Chaenomeles sinensis

Chaenomeles sinensis

Edibility
3/5
Medicinal
3/5

Safety & Hazards

Although no specific information has been seen, the seed is likely to contain cyanogenic glycosides. When injested, these compounds break down in the digestive tract to release cyanide. Used in small quantities in both traditional and conventional medicine, this exceedingly poisonous compound has been shown to stimulate respiration, improve digestion, and promote a sense of well-being[1]. It is also claimed by some to be of benefit in the treatment of cancer - though this claim has been largely refuted. In larger concentrations, however, cyanide can cause gasping, weakness, excitement, pupil dilation, spasms, convulsions, coma and respiratory failure leading to death[2]. The levels of toxin can be detected by the level of bitterness:- sweet almonds, for example, contain only very low levels of it and are safe to eat in quantity, whilst bitter almonds (which are used as a flavouring in foods such as marzipan) contain much higher levels and should only be eaten in very small quantities. Great caution should be employed if the taste is moderately to very bitter[PFAF].

Cultivation Details

HabitDeciduous Tree
Growth—

Chaenomeles sinensis is a fairly cold-hardy plant, tolerating temperatures down to at least -15°c when fully dormant[3]. However, it requires a hot summer in order to ripen its shoots and fruit fully and so generally does not grow so well in Maritime climates (where it will often suffer damage at -5°c), preferring Mediterranean or Continental climates[4]. Requires a sunny position[5, 4], succeeding in any reasonably good soil that is well-drained but not dry[5, 3]. When growing in areas with cool summers, the plant can be grown and fruited successfully against a sunny wall[4, 3]. A plant growing in a sheltered, sunny position on the south side of tree cover at Kew was 3.5 metres tall in spring 1995 and looked healthy[PFAF]. The plant is occasionally cultivated, especially in China[6], for its edible fruit, there are some named varieties[7]. Flowers are produced on year-old wood[3].

Propagation

Seed - best sown in a cold frame as soon as it is ripe in the autumn[3]. Stored seed requires 3 months cold stratification and should be sown as early in the year as possible[8]. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and grow them on in the greenhouse for at least their first winter. Plant them out into their permanent positions in late spring or early summer, after the last expected frosts. Layering. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Chaenomeles+sinensis>

Pollinators

Insects

References

  1. [1]Encyclopaedia of Herbs and their Uses. — Bown. D. · Dorling Kindersley, London. · 1995 · ISBN 0-7513-020-31 ↩︎A very well presented and informative book on herbs from around the globe. Plenty in it for both the casual reader and the serious student. Just one main quibble is the silly way of having two separate entries for each plant.
  2. [2]Poisonous Plants of North Carolina — http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/poison/poison.htm ↩︎An excellent concise but comprehensive guide to toxic plants that grow in N. Carolina. It lists even those plants that are of very low toxicity, including several well-known food plants such as carrots and potatoes.
  3. [3]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  4. [4]Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Great Britain. Vol 1 - 4 and Supplement. — Bean. W. · Murray · 1981 · ISBN - ↩︎A classic with a wealth of information on the plants, but poor on pictures.
  5. [5]RHS Dictionary of Plants plus Supplement. 1956 — F. Chittendon. · Oxford University Press · 1951 · ISBN - ↩︎Comprehensive listing of species and how to grow them. Somewhat outdated, it has been replaced in 1992 by a new dictionary (see [ 200 ]).
  6. [6]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  7. [7]Cornucopia - A Source Book of Edible Plants. — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications · 1990 · ISBN 0-9628087-0-9 ↩︎Excellent. Contains a very wide range of conventional and unconventional food plants (including tropical) and where they can be obtained (mainly N. American nurseries but also research institutes and a lot of other nurseries from around the world.
  8. [8]The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation. — Dirr. M. A. and Heuser. M. W. · Athens Ga. Varsity Press · 1987 · ISBN 0942375009 ↩︎A very detailed book on propagating trees. Not for the casual reader.
  9. [9]Flora of China — Missouri Botanical Garden Press; St. Louis. · 1994 · http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/ ↩︎An excellent, comprehensive resource in 25 volumes. In addition to the botanical information the flora also gives basic information on habitat and some uses. An on-line version is also available.
  10. [10]Bioactive Triterpenoids from the Twigs of Chaenomeles sinensis — Chung Sub Kim; Lalita Subedi; Joonseok Oh; Sun Yeou Kim; San · American Chemical Society · 2017 · ISBN DOI: 10.1021/acs. ↩︎
  11. [11]Morphological and Antioxidant Characteristics of Quince (Cydonia oblonga Mill.) and Chinese Quince fruit (Pseudocydo — Anton Monka, Oľga Grygorieva, Peter Chlebo, Ján Brindza · 2014 · ISBN doi:10.5219/415 ↩︎
  12. [12]Tanaka's Cyclopedia of Edible Plants of the World. — Tanaka. T. & Nakao S. · Keigaku Publishing; Tokyo · 1976 · ISBN - ↩︎The most comprehensive list of edible plants I've come across. Only the briefest entry for each species, though, and some of the entries are more than a little dubious. Not for the casual reader.
  13. [13]Famine Foods listed in the Chiu-Huang Pen-ts'ao. — Reid. B. E. · Southern Materials Centre; Taipei · 1977 · ISBN - ↩︎A translation of an ancient Chinese book on edible wild foods. Fascinating.
  14. [14]Edible Film Production from Chinese Quince Seed (Pseudocydonia sinensis) Mucilage — Patthrare Inthamat; Yasunori Hamauzu; Wirongrong Tongdeesoon · 2016 · http:// https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305489115 ↩︎A conference paper, given at The International Conference on Food and Applied Bioscience in 2016
  15. [15]Atlas of Medicinal Plants. — Kariyone. T. · Nihon Rinshosha; Osaka · 1973 ↩︎A good Japanese herbal.
  16. [16]Medicinal Plants in the Republic of Korea — World Health Organisation, Manila · 1998 · ISBN 92 9061 120 0 ↩︎An excellent book with terse details about the medicinal uses of the plants with references to scientific trials. All plants are described, illustrated and brief details of habitats given.
  17. [17]Protective effects of Chaenomeles thibetica extract against carbon tetrachloride-induced damage via the MAPK/Nrf2 pa — Bingxin Ma; Jing Wang; Jing Tong; Gao Zhou; Yuxin Chen; Jing · Royal Society of Chemistry · 2016 · http://www.rsc.org/foodfunction · ISBN DOI: 10.1039/c5fo ↩︎
  18. [18]A Barefoot Doctors Manual. — ? · Running Press; Philadelphica. · 1977 · ISBN 0-914294-92-X ↩︎A very readable herbal from China, combining some modern methods with traditional chinese methods.
  19. [19]Medicinal Plants of China — Duke. J. A. and Ayensu. E. S. · Reference Publications, Inc. · 1985 · ISBN 0-917256-20-4 ↩︎Details of over 1,200 medicinal plants of China and brief details of their uses. Often includes an analysis, or at least a list of constituents. Heavy going if you are not into the subject.
  20. [20]Polyphenols and triterpenes from Chaenomeles fruits: Chemical analysis and antioxidant activities assessment — Hui Du; Jie Wu; Hui Li; Pei-Xing Zhong; Yan-Jun Xu; Chong-Hu · 2013 · http://www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem · ISBN DOI: 10.1016/j.fo ↩︎
  21. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎