General Landscape Uses:
Specimen, street tree, shade tree.
Availability:
Available at native plant nurseries in northeast and central Florida.
Description: Deciduous tree 90 feet tall with and upright, spreading crown. Shiny green leaves 2-6 inches long and less than 1 inch wide, turning reddish yellow in the fall.
Dimensions: Typically 90 feet in height.
Growth Rate: Relatively fast.
Range:
Southern United States south to Escambia to Duval 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: Floodplain forests, mesic slopes, sometimes in upland hammocks.
Soils: Moist to seasonally wet, well-drained to poorly-drained sandy or limestone soils, with humusy top layer.
Nutritional Requirements: Moderate; can grow in nutrient poor soils, but needs some organic content to thrive.
Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate long-term 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.
Light Requirements: Light shade to full sun.
Flower Characteristics: Inconspicuous.
Flowering Season: Spring.
Fruit: Small acorn less than one-half inch.
Wildlife and Ecology: Acorns eaten by blue jays.
Horticultural Notes: Easy to transplant.
References: Mellichamp (
2014), Wunderlin and Hansen 2011
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.
