ERICACEAE - - Heath Family

Oxydendrum arboreum (Linnaeus) A.P. de Candolle — Sourwood

Sourwood (Oxydendrum arboreum) - Shrub or tree becoming 20 m. tall; leaf-blades elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, 8—20 cm. long, acuminate; panicles 1—2 dm. long, the pedicels strongly curved at maturity; calyx-lobes ovate; corolla 6—7 mm. long, pubescent like the calyx; capsule 4—6 mm. long, pubescent. The tree is used in horticulture. The brown, hard, close-grained heartwood is used for tool-handles and machinery. The flowers furnish a very pale honey.

Habitat:

Mesic to xeric deciduous forests, especially dry-mesic to xeric oak-hickory and oak-pine forests, and also often in sandhill/pocosin ecotones. It is an especially characteristic understory tree of upland forests of the Piedmont and lower Mountains. The bark is dark grayish-brown and fairly deeply furrowed; the tree often has a characteristic lean (toward a former canopy light-gap). The finely serrate, elliptic leaves are distinctive, with the sour taste of garden sorrel (Rumex acetosa), sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella), or wood sorrel (Oxalis).

Habitat information from:
Weakley, Alan S., Flora of the Southern and Mid-Atlantic States, Working Draft of 21 May 2015.

The range of Oxydendrum arboreum (Sourwood)

Kartesz, J.T., The Biota of North America Program (BONAP). 2015. North American Plant Atlas. (http://bonap.net/napa). Chapel Hill, N.C. [maps generated from Kartesz, J.T. 2015. Floristic Synthesis of North America, Version 1.0. Biota of North America Program (BONAP). (in press)].

The Georgia range of Oxydendrum arboreum (Sourwood)

Zomlefer, W.B., J.R. Carter, & D.E. Giannasi. 2014 (and ongoing). The Atlas of Georgia Plants. University of Georgia Herbarium (Athens, Georgia) and Valdosta State University Herbarium (Valdosta, Georgia). Available at: http://www.georgiaherbaria.org/.