Celebrating Earth Day with Stewartia malacodendron

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.

The Foggy Flowers of White Fringe Tree

I love seeing our Chionanthus virginicus (white fringe tree) lit with the golden glow of dawn.  As I look west out the kitchen window, the flowers look more like white cotton candy hanging in the tree than petals.  

I was amazed when we first bought the house at how big a fringe tree we had inherited!  This fine vase-shaped specimen tops out around 15 feet tall.  And, every spring it brings me joy when it erupts in its haze of bloom. I worry about it a bit because there’s some deadwood that needs to be removed, but these trees have a way of surviving in the pineywoods.  I see them flowering up and down the roadside edges in much less hospitable environs.  And, I hope that emerald ash borer stays away for a long time from this area as they can complete their life cycle in fringe trees. Yuck.

Here’s a fun fact.  Did you know that Chionanthus virginicus is dioecious?  That means that you have separate male and female flowers on different plants.  Therefore, both sexes are needed for fruit set.  

Rarely, plants exhibit the interesting condition where they are polygamo-dioecious.  That means individuals that are male or female may have some perfect (male and female) flowers mixed in.  I have yet to see any fruit on ours; therefore, I assume it is male.  Here’s hoping that some of it’s pollen makes it’s way to a female or polygamo-dioecious male to make more of these incredible trees.