General Landscape Uses:
Specimen or understory tree for large spaces.
Availability:
Rarely grown by native plant nurseries in northern Florida.
Description: Small deciduous tree up to 45 feet tall. Very large leaves 18 inches long and 8 inches wide. Large, white flowers with petals 3-5 inches long.
Dimensions: Up to 45 feet in height.
Growth Rate: Fast.
Range:
Scattered in the eastern United States south to Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, and Gadsden counties. For a digitized image of Elbert Little's Florida range map, visit the
Exploring Florida website.
Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Habitats: Wooded ravines.
Soils: Moist, well-drained sandy or limestone soils, with humusy top layer and acid pH.
Nutritional Requirements: Moderate; can grow in nutrient poor soils, but needs some organic content to thrive.
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: Moderate; generally requires moist soils, but tolerant of short periods of drought once established.
Flower Color: White.
Flower Characteristics: Showy.
Flowering Season: Spring.
Fruit: Somewhat leathery and cone-like, green turning pink or red. 2.5-7.5 inches long, with dark pink to red-skinned seeds.
References: Wunderlin and Hansen (
2011), Nelson (
1994), Elias
Comments: We have been adding data for this species for central and northern Florida and welcome any feedback or review. If you would like to contribute information or images, please contact George Gann via the IRC staff page.
