General Landscape Uses:
Specimen, accent, or shade tree.
Availability:
Available at native plant nurseries in northeast and central Florida.
Description: Deciduous tree with brownish to grayish bark up to 75 feet tall. Leaves 2-8 inches long with serrated edges. Small, fragrant white flowers in the spring.
Dimensions: Typically 75 feet in height, taller than broad. Up to 120 feet in height in the Florida Panhandle.
Growth Rate: Seedlings are slow-growing, fast once established.
Range:
Eastern half of the United States from Maine to North Dakota south to Texas and Hillsborough to Osceola 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.
Map of suggested ZIP codes from South Florida north to southern Brevard, Osceola, Polk, and Pasco counties.
Habitats: Moist hammocks.
Soils: Moist, well-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: Full sun to light shade.
Flower Color: White.
Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy.
Flowering Season: Spring.
Fruit: Tiny, dry, hard and reddish.
Wildlife and Ecology: Attracts bees. Larval plant for red-spotted purple (Basilarchia arthemis astyanax) and mourning cloak (Nymphalis antiopa) butterflies.
References: Wunderlin and Hansen (
2011), Osorio (
2001)
Comments: We are currently adding data for this species for central and northern Florida. If you would like to contribute information or images, please contact George Gann via the IRC staff page.
