Dead Man's Fingers

Dead Man's Fingers
Decaisnea fargesii
(de-KANE-ee-uh) (far-GHEE-zee-eye)
Synonyms: Blue Bean, Blue Sausage Fruit

This native of the Sichuan province in China is not too popular as a landscape plant. Its pods are probably the best part of growing it. That color blue is just not found in too many plants. The seedpods are edible, I have been told, but from the looks and feel of the seeds you wouldn’t catch me putting it in my mouth. I can forego eating anything called Dead Man’s Fingers.

Decaisnea grows to about 10-12 feet tall as a multi-trunk shrubby tree. Its flowers aren’t anything special and the pinnate foliage is nice when mixed with other plants like some of the bigger Viburnums.

Here is another plant that gets nicely colored berries, Oregon Grape Holly (Mahonia aquifolium). The berries in this picture are not quite ripe but still have some of the bluish green color. This plant blooms in very early spring with fragrant yellow flowers and makes the berries soon after (this picture was taken last June). Mahonia is going to need its own post.