Leaves oblong-ovate to slightly obovate or elliptic, abruptly long-pointed or acuminate at apex, narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base, finely serrate with minute glandular teeth, densely covered when they unfold with hoary tomentum, becoming pubescent or glabrous, 2½′—3¼′ long and 1′—1¼′ wide, with a slender midrib and primary veins villose-pubescent below; petioles hoary-tomentose when they first appear, becoming glabrous, ¼′—⅓′ in length. Flowers opening the end of March or early in April, ¼′—⅓′ long, on pedicels more or less densely villose-pubescent with white hairs, becoming nearly glabrous, ⅓′—⅖′ in length; calyx densely hoary-tomentose or rarely villose-pubescent; corolla ⅓′—½′ in diameter; stamens 10—16, filaments slightly villose. Fruit ripening in August and September, clavate, gradually narrowed into the long stipitate base, ¾′—1½′ long, 4-winged, the wings narrow, of equal width or occasionally with the alternate wings narrower than the others; stone ovoid, abruptly narrowed below into a short stipe, gradually narrowed to the apex, obscurely angled, ¾′—1¼′ long.
A slender tree, 25°—30° high, with a long trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, small light brown slightly ridged branches and slender branchlets hoary-tomentose when they first appear, becoming pubescent or nearly glabrous by the end of their first season and light gray-brown in their second year; or a shrub only a few feet tall. Winter-buds ovoid, acute, slightly compressed, villose, about ⅛′ long. Bark of the trunk thick, dark brown or nearly black, and divided by deep longitudinal furrows into narrow rounded rough ridges.
Distribution. Northern Florida, in sandy uplands (St. John, Clay, Jackson, Gadsden and Lafayette Counties); not common; Alabama (Lee County); eastern Mississippi (Laurel, Jones County), and eastern Oklahoma (near Page, Le Flore County).
4. [Halesia diptera] Ellis.
Mohrodendron dipterum Britt.
Leaves ovate to obovate, oval or elliptic, abruptly long-pointed or rarely rounded at apex, gradually narrowed and cuneate or rounded at base, undulate-serrate with remote minute callous teeth, coated below with pale tomentum and pubescent above when they unfold, and at maturity thin, light green and glabrous or pubescent on the slender midrib on the upper surface and paler and soft-pubescent on the lower surface, 3′—4′ long and 2′—2½′ wide, and at the end of vigorous branches up to 8′ long and 3′ wide, with pale conspicuous arcuate veins and reticulate veinlets; petioles slender, pubescent, ½′—¾′ in length. Flowers opening from the middle of March to the end of April, usually nearly 1′ long, on slender tomentose pedicels 1½′—2′ in length, from the axils of obovate puberulous bracts rounded or acute at apex and ½′—¾′ long, in few-flowered fascicles or in 4—6-flowered racemes; calyx thickly covered with hoary tomentum, the short lobes nearly glabrous on the inner surface; corolla puberulous on the outer surface, divided nearly to the base into slightly obovate or oval spreading lobes; stamens 8—16, usually 8, nearly as long as the corolla; filaments covered with pale hairs, and sometimes free from the corolla; ovary usually 2, rarely 4-celled and covered, like the style, with pale pubescence. Fruit oblong to slightly obovoid, compressed, 1½′—2′ long, often nearly 1′ wide, with two broad wings and often with 2 or rarely 3 narrow wings between them; stone ellipsoid, 1½′—1¾′ long, conspicuously ridged, gradually narrowed below into the short slender stipe and above into the thickened pubescent style; seed acuminate at the ends, about ¾′ in length.
A tree, occasionally 30° high, with a short or rarely a tall trunk 8′—10′ in diameter, spreading branches forming a wide head and slender branchlets light green and more or less thickly covered with pale pubescence when they first appear, usually becoming glabrous, orange color, or reddish brown, lustrous and marked by the large elevated obcordate leaf-scars during their first winter, dark red-brown in their second season and dividing the following year into irregular pale longitudinal fissures; more often a shrub, with numerous stout spreading stems. Winter-buds ovoid, obtuse, 1/16′ long, with broad-ovate acute light red pubescent scales, those of the inner ranks becoming strap-shaped, scarious and ¼′ long. Bark of the trunk ⅓′—½′ thick, brown tinged with red, and divided by irregular longitudinal often broad fissures, and separating into small thin closely appressed scales. Wood light, soft, strong, close-grained, light brown with thick lighter-colored sapwood.
Distribution. Low wet woods and the borders of swamps and streams; near Savannah (Elliott) and in southwestern Georgia, western Florida (Leon and Gadsden Counties), southern Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to the valley of the lower Neches River, Texas, and to southwestern Arkansas (Miller County).
Occasionally cultivated in the gardens of the eastern United States and western Europe. Doubtfully hardy in Massachusetts and western New York.