|
Common Names
Fringe tree, American fringe tree, graybeard tree, old man's beard, poison ash, snowdrop tree, snowflowers, white fringe, white fringe tree
Description
It grows as a multi-stemmed tree or large shrub, usually reaching 15 to 20 feet in height and spread in cultivation. It can reach 30 feet in the wild with a main trunk sometimes 10 inches through, though such specimens are rare. Leaves are opposite, simple, pinnately-veined, 4 to 8 inches long. Produces many 1 inch long white flowers with a 4-lobed white corolla. Berries are fleshy, globular, and purple.
Flowering April to May. The snow white fringe tree flowers are produced in loose, terminal 6-inch long panicles that have the ethereal look of puffy white clouds. Each flower on the panicle is four-petaled, strap shaped blooms. Individual plants are dioecious (either male or female), with male plants being more showy because of their longer petals. Like forsythia, the fringe tree belongs to the olive family
Habitat
Damp woods, thickets, bluffs, and dry woods. Fringe tree is best in fertile, well drained soil that does not get too dry during the summer. It will grow in light shade, but blooms best in full sun. Because it's slow growing, situate it where it will not be overpowered by nearby shrubbery.
Harvest
Root bark and fresh bark of trunks in the fall.
Uses
The bark is used as a tonic, diuretic, and astringent also used to reduce fever. In Appalachia a liquid of root bark is applied to skin irritations.
Fringe tree is considered one our finest native trees in England. It was first sent there by John Bartram (1699 - 1777), the intrepid naturalist from Philadelphia responsible for introducing so many New World plants to England. Bartram farmed on the banks of the Schuylkill River and was a close friend of Benjamin Franklin. The home he built is now a city park and many of his plants still grow in the garden.
Bartram traveled from Canada to Florida in pre-Revolutionary days, collecting plants and seeds as he went. These he sent to a long list of correspondents in Europe, the most important being the woolen draper merchant Peter Collinson (1694 - 1768) who was an avid gardener.
Though they never met, Bartram and Collinson corresponded for over 30 years and developed a deep friendship. Their letters, resplendent with "thees" and "thous" - for both were Quakers, survive and have been reprinted most recently in the Berleley's book, The Correspondence of John Bartram (University Press of Florida, 1992).
Plant collecting was such a rage amongst the social elite of England that thieves began targeting the better collections. To remedy the problem, Parliament passed legislation making plant thievery a "transportable offense." Ship the hooligans off to Australia - that will teach them. |
