Natives For Your Neighborhood
Conservation of rare plants, animals, and ecosystems

General Landscape Uses: Water gardens and along pond and lake edges.

Availability: Grown by one or two native plant nurseries in South Florida.

Description: Small to medium tree with an open, rounded crown. Trunk often short, to nearly 12 inches in diameter, but usually much small in South Florida. Bark light gray, blotched. Leaves temperate deciduous, compound, dark green above, about 7-12 inches long.

Dimensions: Typically 15-30 feet in height in South Florida; to 58 feet in Florida. Often as broad as tall.

Growth Rate: Moderate.

Range: Southeastern United States west to Texas and south to Martin County and the Monroe County mainland. For a digitized image of Elbert Little's Florida range map, visit the Exploring Florida website.

 Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.

 Map of suggested ZIP codes from South Florida north to southern Brevard, Osceola, Polk, and Pasco counties.

 Map of ZIP codes with habitat recommendations from the Monroe County Keys north to Martin and Charlotte counties.

Habitats: Swamps.

Soils: Wet, poorly-drained organic soils.

Nutritional Requirements: High; requires rich organic soils for optimal growth.

Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate flooding by salt or brackish water.

Salt Wind Tolerance: Low; salt wind may burn the leaves.

Drought Tolerance: Low; requires moist to wet soils and is intolerant of long periods of drought.

Light Requirements: Light shade to full sun.

Flower Color: White.

Flower Characteristics: Inconspicuous.

Flowering Season: Spring.

Fruit: Winged fruit (samara).

Wildlife and Ecology: Provides significant food and cover for wildlife. Larval host plant for eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) in northern Florida, but perhaps not utilized in our area.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed. Germination may not occur for many months.

References: Nelson 2003, Schaefer & Tanner 1997