Oct 10, 2025
Our plant of the week: The Seven Sons of Heaven shrub
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The Seven Sons of Heaven shrub - Heptacodium miconioides Rehder
The six white individual blossoms have a jasmine-like fragrance. In autumn, purple sepals add new color accents.
The Lonicera caprifolium L. from the honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae ) turns an evening visit to the garden in early summer into a special fragrant experience with its fragrant flowers.
The seven-sons-of-heaven shrub(Heptacodium miconioides Rehder) has a similarly flowery name. As the only species of the genus , it occupies a special position within the honeysuckle family. It is native to a relatively small area in eastern China, where it colonizes altitudes of 600 to 1000 m. Due to the few natural occurrences and the fragmentation of its habitat, it is considered an endangered species.
The Seven Sons of Heaven shrub grows to a height of 3 to 7 meters. It has a characteristic bark that peels off in longitudinal stripes. In the fall, it unfolds its full splendor in a flowering period lasting several weeks and reveals the secret of its name: The jasmine-like, fragrant inflorescences each have seven buds. Six of these develop into white flowers, while the central bud only produces scale-like leaves. For insects, the splendor of the flowers late in the year is a very welcome source of food.
The shrub remains attractive even afterwards: after the white petals fall off, the sepals enlarge like wings and turn purple, adding new color accents.
It was not until 1980/81 that seed of the species reached the USA and Europe. Our plant came to the Botanical Garden in 1994. Today, the shrub is considered an attractive ornamental shrub due to its late flowering, winter hardiness and undemanding habitat conditions, which can be easily propagated by cuttings.
If you enter the Botanical Garden through the main entrance, you will discover Heptacodium miconioides to the right of the path opposite the information point.
(KW 41/25)
Around 10,000 plant species grow in the Botanical Garden at TU Dresden. On this page we regularly present an example of this diversity in more detail. The special features of our scientific plant collection can be seen in many different ways: in amazing adaptations, strange names, interesting uses or even in the extraordinary splendor of their flowers.
You can view previous Plant of the Week articles in the archive.