Carolina Silverbell (Halesia carolina)

The Carolina Silverbell has been assigned a newer official scientific name of (Halesia tetraptera) that means "four wings" in Greek, so (Halesia carolina) is the same species. This is very beautiful tree in every way. The native range goes from southern West Virginia & Ohio & Illinois down into northwest Florida into much of Alabama, and there is a spot on the southern Oklahoma/Arkansas border area, growing in upland forest. It has simple leaves about 2 to 5 inches long and about 1/2 as wide that turn a pale yellow in fall. The white, sometimes pale rose, flowers are 4-lobed, bell-shaped and hang down on pendulous stalks in April-May. It bears 4-winged dry brown drupes (or samaras) with 2 to 3 seeds inside. The bark starts out smooth and gray but eventually becomes gray & brown & black ridged & furrowed with scaly plates. It grows about 1 foot/year and lives over a hundred years. It has deep, coarse, wide-spreading roots that make it difficult to transplant, and is often best to buy in containers from larger, diverse or native plant or specialty nurseries. I've only seen this species planted in arboretums, estates, and professional landscapes; it is not common. It needs an acid, good quality sandy loam or silty or good clay soil, not for compacted soils of many new subdivisions. I think it can tolerate a pH up to about 7.0.

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Native to the central and southern United States, this tree gets its common name from its bell-shaped blossoms. The species is found as far north as West Virginia and southern Illinois, west to Oklahoma, south to northern Florida. It is, however, thinly distributed over much of its range and becoming increasingly rare in many regions.

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