Plant of the Month: July 2025

Title image above is copyright © Kristi Ellinopoullos

First published 1st July 2025

Family: Rhamnaceae (includes buckthorns; Rhamnaceae is also known as the buckthorn family)
Genus: Ziziphus (includes Indian Ber)

Botanical/Binomial Name: Ziziphus jujuba Mill.
Meaning of Name:
Ziziphus, from Latin zīziphum, form Ancient Greek ζίζυφον (zízuphon): denoting the fruit; and
jujuba, from Mediaeval Latin jujuba (feminine singular of jujube): denoting the tree or fruit; and
Mill., abbreviated author citation for Philip Miller (1691–1771), Scottish botanist

Common Names: Jujube, Chinese Jujube, Chinese Date, Red Date, Chinese Red Date
Cultivars: Many

Botanical Characteristics: Woody | Perennial | Deciduous | Frost hardy

Description of Fruit:
Jujube fruit falls into three categories: best for fresh-eating; best dried; and all-rounder (good both fresh or dried).

Fresh-eating fruit has an apple crunch, texture and taste (but with its own jujube taste as well), while dried jujubes have a chewy date-like consistency, and even look like red dates.

Description of Tree:
(The following information is from The Biosphere Blog on our sister site The Jujube Tree Nursery. More information can be found here and here.)

The jujube tree is deciduous. It can grow to 10 m high by 6 m wide, but keeping pruned to a height of 3–5 m makes management and harvesting easier.
It is native to climates with a yearly temperature range from around -5°C to 50°C, but can survive winters that get down to -30°C.

While growth in areas with cool summers can be very slow, the tree thrives in hot, dry environments with long summers and warm nights. Heat is crucial for flower production and fruit development, and jujubes require a range of at least 20°C to 25°C during the flowering stage for fruit to set. Unlike most fruit trees, jujubes have a very long period of flowering, often over a few months. If temperatures are too cool for the first flush of flowers to set fruit, later flowers usually will as the weather warms.

While summers can’t be hot enough, the tree does need around 200-400 hours of exposure to temperatures below 7°C over winter during dormancy. This is called its chilling requirement, and ensures vernalisation (the induction of the flowering process) occurs in spring.

Jujube trees flower later than other fruit trees, from November on, and are thus unaffected by late frosts that can devastate other fruit crops.

They can grow in a range of soils from acid to alkaline, but prefer deep and well-drained soils.

The rootstock will sucker, but easily kept under control with secateurs or even a lawn mower.

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