Plant: Grancey Graybeard - White Fringetree
Fringetree · Chionanthus virginicus
Size: 3 gal
Light
Bloom
Mature size
More about this plant
A slow growing native small tree or multi stemmed shrub reaching 12 to 30 feet, carrying fragrant ivory to white flowers in drooping panicles 4 to 8 inches long in April and May. Wide spear shaped leaves up to 8 inches long turn gold yellow in fall, and on female plants olive like fruits ripen dark bluish black in late summer and are eaten by songbirds and small mammals. It takes full sun or partial shade in a moist, well drained soil, tolerates drought, pollution and urban conditions, and suits a lawn specimen, a small space or a native and pollinator planting.
- Full Sun
- Grows to 30 ft tall and 20 ft wide
- Blooms in spring
- Hardy in USDA zones 3-9
- Deciduous foliage
- Native plant
Plant description
A slow growing native small tree or multi stemmed shrub reaching 12 to 30 feet, carrying fragrant ivory to white flowers in drooping panicles 4 to 8 inches long in April and May. Wide spear shaped leaves up to 8 inches long turn gold yellow in fall, and on female plants olive like fruits ripen dark bluish black in late summer and are eaten by songbirds and small mammals. It takes full sun or partial shade in a moist, well drained soil, tolerates drought, pollution and urban conditions, and suits a lawn specimen, a small space or a native and pollinator planting.
- Flowers
- Fragrant ivory to white flowers hang in paniculate clusters 4 to 8 inches long in April and May, with male flowers the showier of the two.
- Foliage
- Wide spear shaped leaves to 8 inches long, glabrous above and pubescent below, opposite and turning gold yellow in fall.
- Fruit
- Olive like fruits on female plants ripen to a dark bluish black in late summer and are eaten by birds.
- Bark & stems
- Scaly bark with dark brown ridges and red furrows.
- Native range
- Central & Eastern U.S.A.
