Plant · P-376

Chinese Quince

Pseudocydonia sinensis

Chinese Quince produces a very large, intensely aromatic yellow fruit in autumn - too hard and astringent to eat raw, but candied, preserved in syrup, made into liqueur, or juiced with ginger, and a single fruit left indoors will scent a room for weeks. The tree is also grown for its exfoliating, patchwork bark, and its pink spring blossom feeds early pollinators, though it blooms on year-old wood so hard pruning costs a crop. It needs full sun and steady moisture on well-drained ground, and like other pome fruit it carries a fire blight risk, so it is best kept apart from a block of other pome fruit.