The Mopan jujube is an ornamental tree suitable for courtyard planting

Aliases: Mozi jujube, Hulu jujube (Hebei), Yaohulu jujube (Gansu). It is fairly widely distributed; it is cultivated in places such as Dali in Shaanxi; Qingyang in Gansu; Jiaohe, Qingxian, Xianxian, Quyang, Daming and Weixian in Hebei; and Leling, Wudi and Xiajin in Shandong, but the quantity is very small, mostly planted scattered around the four sides [of homes and fields]. It has a long history of cultivation. The tree is vigorous, relatively large, with medium-strong trunk dominance; the crown is a natural semicircle and the tree posture is open. A 23-year-old tree: trunk height 1.1 m, trunk circumference 60 cm, tree height 7.35 m, crown diameter about 7 m. The main trunk is grayish brown, with deep bark cracks that do not peel easily. The jujube shoot is purplish brown, with fairly strong growth vigor and relatively soft wood; growth amount 50-80 cm; secondary branches naturally grow 5-7 nodes; thorns are well developed. The lenticels are large and dense, round or oval, raised and cracked. The jujube spur is large, cylindrical, 2.6 cm long and 1.2 cm thick, and continues bearing fruit for about 8 years. The hanging-shoot production capacity is fairly strong; each spur generally produces 3-5 hanging shoots, and up to 7-8 in many cases; the hanging shoot is 12-20 cm long, and a few hanging shoots show secondary hanging shoot growth. The leaves are medium or relatively large, lanceolate, dark green, 4.7-5.7 cm long and 2.3-2.7 cm wide, with a gradually pointed tip and a rounded base; the leaf margin serrations are shallow and relatively sparse. The flower quantity is large; in the middle of the hanging shoot, each inflorescence bears more than 7-9 flowers. The flowers are large: grade-0 flower diameter 8 mm, grade-1 flower diameter 7.5 mm, day-opening type. The nectar disc is medium-large and light yellow. The fruit is medium-large, millstone-shaped; there is a constriction in the middle of the fruit, 2-3 mm deep and 2-3 mm wide; the upper part of the constriction is small and the lower part is large. Vertical diameter 2.6-3.4 cm, horizontal diameter 2.4-3.2 cm, average fruit weight about 7 g, maximum fruit weight 13.7 g, uneven in size. The fruit stalk is medium-long and medium-thick; the stalk cavity is medium-wide and medium-deep. The fruit apex is flat or slightly concave; the stigma remains, not obvious. The flesh is relatively thick, greenish white, coarse and loose in texture, with relatively weak sweetness and little juice; suitable for drying; the quality of dried fruit is below average, with a drying rate of 50.5%. Fresh jujube contains 30-33% soluble solids. The stone is medium-large, spindle-shaped or oval, 1.8 cm in vertical diameter, 0.9 cm in horizontal diameter, weighing 0.9 g, with an edible rate of 93.5%. The stone markings are deep, the stone tip is short, the stone surface is rough, and the kernel-bearing rate is low. It bears fruit relatively early; a few production areas use root-sucker propagation, while most production areas use grafting propagation. Root-sucker seedlings begin bearing fruit in the 2nd-3rd year after planting; the fruiting habit is relatively poor; fruit-setting nodes are 1-13, with the main fruit-setting nodes at 2-5, accounting for 73.33% of the total fruit set. The yield is relatively low or medium; trees in full bearing period produce 15-25 kg of fresh jujube per tree. In the production areas, it matures in mid-to-late September, and the fruit development period is about 100 days. This cultivar has relatively strong adaptability, relatively low or medium yield, medium-large fruit, below-average quality, is suitable for drying, and resists fruit cracking when it rains at maturity. There is a constriction in the middle of the fruit that clearly divides the fruit into two parts; the fruit shape is peculiar and attractive, so it can be cultivated as a courtyard ornamental tree.