Aucuba japonica 'Rosannie'

Aucuba japonica Thunb. Acubaceae. Spotted laurel, Japanese laurel. Its Japanese name is aukubi. 'Rosannie' is an unspotted cultivar which has the Award of Garden Merit from the RHS, and is unusual in that it has both male and female flowers, so always produces berries. The original Aucuba japonica plants introduced in 1783 were female and it was not until Robert Fortune brought back a male plant in 1861 that berries could be produced on the female plants. It is only mildly poisonous, containing the alkaloid aucubin, unlike true laurel, Prunus laurocerasus, which contains a cyanogenic lipid which is converted to cyanide if the leaf is damaged. Aucubin is an iridoid glycoside, which defends the plant against herbivores, mostly insects which is probably why the leaves suffer little if any pest damage. There are no medical uses although the leaves are used in traditional Chinese medicine. Photographed in the Medicinal Garden of the Royal College of Physicians, London.