Distribution. Wooded slopes and the banks of streams, southern West Virginia (Fayette and Summers Counties); Piedmont region of North and South Carolina, ascending to altitudes of 2000°, through central Georgia to western Florida, and through Alabama south to Dallas and Mount Vernon Counties; the var. mollis with the type and the more common form in western Florida southward to Suwanee County. A seedling shrubby Halesia (var. Meehanii Perkins) with thicker smaller darker green rugose leaves, smaller cup-shaped flowers on shorter pedicels, appeared many years ago in the Meehan Nurseries at Germantown, Pennsylvania, and is possibly a hybrid but of obscure origin.
Often cultivated in the eastern United States, in California and in western and central Europe; hardy as far north as eastern Massachusetts.
2. [Halesia monticola] Sarg.
Leaves elliptic to oblong-obovate, abruptly acuminate at apex, cuneate or occasionally rounded at base, remotely dentate with minute blunt teeth, covered above when they unfold with short white hairs and below with thick hoary tomentum, half-grown and pubescent on the midrib below when the flowers open at the end of May, and at maturity thin, dark dull green on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface, glabrous with the exception of a few hairs on the lower side of the slender midrib and primary veins, 8′—11′ long and 1½′—2½′ wide; turning yellow in the autumn before falling; petioles slender, villose-pubescent when they first appear, soon glabrous, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers 2′ long on pedicels ½′—1′ in length, from the axils of obovate or elliptic acute pubescent bracts ½′—¾′ long and ¼′ wide; calyx obconic, glabrous or slightly villose-pubescent; corolla 1′ in diameter, contracted below into a short limb; stamens 10—16; filaments slightly villose toward the base, ovary 4-celled. Fruit oblong-obovoid, cuneate at base, 4-winged, 1¾′—2′ long, 1′ in diameter; stone ovoid-ellipsoid, abruptly narrowed below into a short stipe, gradually narrowed above into the long apex, prominently angled about 1¼′—1⅓′ in length.
A tree, often 80°—90° high, with a trunk 3° in diameter and free of branches for 50°—60°, comparatively small spreading and erect branches forming a round-topped head and slender branchlets covered when they first appear with pale hairs, soon glabrous, lustrous, light red-brown or orange-brown during their first winter and dark red-brown in their second year. Winter-buds ovoid to ellipsoid, acuminate, much compressed, gibbous on the back, the outer scales thick, slightly keeled on the back, lustrous, bright red, ⅓′ long. Bark of the trunk thick, separating freely into long broad loosely attached red-brown plates ½′—¾′ thick.
Distribution. Mountain slopes at altitudes from 3000°—4000°, western North Carolina, eastern Tennessee and western Georgia; passing into the var. vestita Sarg., with leaves often rounded at base, coated below and on the petioles when they unfold with snow-white tomentum, and at maturity pubescent over the lower surface, especially on the midrib and veins, and occasionally pale rose-colored flowers (f. rosea Sarg.); banks of streams, near Marion, McDowell County, North Carolina; Heber Springs, Carroll County, Arkansas; occasionally cultivated with the var. vestita and hardy in the Arnold Arboretum and in Rochester, New York.
Halesia monticola in cultivation grows rapidly with a single trunk; and is hardy in eastern Massachusetts.
3. [Halesia parviflora] Michx.
