General Landscape Uses:
Screen, provide shade, attract wildlife.
Availability:
Commonly available at native plant nurseries in central Florida. Available at native plant nurseries in northeast Florida.
Description: Shrub or small deciduous tree up to 35 feet tall with dark gray to black, deeply furrowed bark. Elliptic leaves 1-4 inches long, with bluish or ashy green upper surface and silvery undersides.
Dimensions: Typically 35 feet in height, almost as broad as tall. Up to 44 feet in height in north Florida.
Growth Rate: Fast.
Range:
Southern United States to eastern Texas and south to Sarasota, De Soto, Highlands, Osceola, and Brevard counties. For a digitized image of Elbert Little's Florida range map, visit the
Exploring Florida website. Note: there are no herbarium vouchers for Charlotte or Lee counties.
Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Map of Postal Code Areas of IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Habitats: Sandhills.
Soils: Moist to dry, well-drained sandy or limestone soils, without humus.
Nutritional Requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils.
Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate long-term flooding by salt or brackish water.
Salt Wind Tolerance: Moderate; grows near salt water, but is protected from direct salt spray by other vegetation.
Drought Tolerance: High; does not require any supplemental water once established.
Light Requirements: Full sun to light shade.
Flower Characteristics: Inconspicuous.
Flowering Season: Spring.
Fruit: Acorn one half inch long, reddish brown, rounded.
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.
