Featured Expert
Mike Zins
Extension Horticulturist
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum
Chanhassen, MN

Q: I have a bittersweet that doesn't produce fruit. Why doesn't it?

A: Well, some plants are male and female, and maybe the plant you have is a male plant. That is the case with the bittersweet, which has male and female plants. Here we have a female that has the fruit on it, and you of course need both sexes to pollinate the flowers and make them work. Some plants have perfect flowers, in which everything is right there, but in the case of some these deciduous plants like this we have both sexes. So, the easy way to do this in the case of bittersweet would be to plant a couple more plants nearby - they don't have to be right on top of it, but you could plant them very close by, and chances are that you would probably end up with a male or a female that's just the opposite of the plant that you have, and that way you'll end up with getting pollination and fruit on one of those plants. So, you can tell by looking at the flowers early in the spring when they're out whether they're male or female, and that's another way of telling. But most nurseries don't sell them as male or female - they just sell them as bittersweet, so the best is to plant three or four of them in close proximity, and the chances are you'll get fruit on one or two of them at least.


images: bittersweet fruit | bittersweet

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Last updated: Tuesday, February 01, 2005