Stewartia malacodendron (silky camellia) is a member of the tea family (Theaceae) that graces the stream-side understory of our southern forests. Populations are scattered, and we are fortunate enough to have a disjunct population in east Texas.
Higher up the slopes on this petrified-wood bearing creek one finds Stewartia malacodendron.
Karen and I spent a cloudy Earth Day looking for these small trees in Newton County, Texas. We were joined by Dawn Stover and our guide Peter Loos who has been investigating these populations since the early 1990’s.
The white flowers, a little larger than a golf ball, pop in the dark understory or against the forest edge.
A close up of the flowers and stamens of silky camellia. Just beautiful.
I saw them in flower last spring with students. The white blooms are hard to miss against the dark forest. On closer inspection one sees the eggshell petals surrounding a sparkler of purple-red stamens. But, I have only seen them in an edge habitat.
Peter took us to a new site that had even more specimens. We walked through a wooded gully seeing jewels like Asclepias variegata and even the rare-to-Texas Amelanchier arborea. We climbed the other side and soon found ourselves flanked by Stewartia.
Seeing the trees in their natural environment under a canopy I noticed for the first time their strongly horizontal growth. I suspect that these plagiotropic branches are arranged to maximize sunlight collection. It even seemed like the foliage had this pattern where leaves didn’t overlap each other. We saw one specimen that Peter deemed “The Champion” as it had a canopy spread of 25 feet.
Here Stewartia malacodendron spreads itself out in the understory. If you look in the background, you can see even more silky camellia.
I noticed that many plants seemed to have this horizontal growth habit. This architecture is likely for maximizing light capture in the understory.
Quickening claps of thunder cut our visit short. But, we’ll return again. Evidently, cuttings are best taken in early-to-mid May. We will see in a few weeks as we work to learn more about how to propagate this incredible native tree. It is safe from extinction due to its wide distribution in the southeast, but it is critically imperiled in Texas. Working to save diversity was a great way to celebrate Earth Day.