Does anyone grow one of the species from the genus Azara, belonging to the Salicaceae family?
They consist of mostly evergreen shrubs and small trees with fragrant, sometimes, vanilla scented flowers.
This genus is native to South America and called lilén in Spanish. They can also be found in the extreme south of South America and the Andes. That’s why some are rated zone 7b and higher in hardiness.
The more common cold hardy species are:
Azara microphylla
A. alpina
A. serrata
A. dentata
There are sources that claim that the small berries that form after flowering are edible, but I can’t find much about it. I was wondering if someone could tell me more about it’s edibility and hardiness.
I did a quick search for giggles. I get lots of hits, especially for A microphylla, but I am landing the same place you have. Some sites give z7, others z8, but most suggest the cooler zones it can grow in need the shelter of a wall and/or protection from wind.
Interestingly, I found one webpage that said it was edible and one that said it was toxic. Both were by the same site that I’m pretty sure is solidly AI so I’m not going to link it.
It does appear on a couple of my goto sites for looking at more than basic stats and invasiveness. None of those more academic sites mention edibility or toxicity. I’ve generally found this means other plants I’ve been looking for the same answer for could be eaten, but there was no useful reason to do so, especially intentionally.
Yes, that’s the problem. There’s a lot of conflicting infomation about this genus out there.
Some sources even rate A. alpina hardiness zone 7a, because it’s from the mountains. I was hoping someone had experimented with these plants, and could confirm or debunk some of the claims. They make for an interesting ornamental plant, thats for sure. Right now they are still quite uncommon in gardens.