Photo by Linda Lee It's not a dogwood, but it does have a little bite.

It is one of the loveliest trees of the eastern US and is fairly common from PA through the Appalachians south to GA, down through the FL panhandle and into LA. It likes high ground usually on bluffs and slopes, often in sandy woods in the company of sassafras, hickories, persimmons, blackjack oak, and post oak.

This is a small tree, usually no more than about 30 feet tall. Large specimens may have a trunk about a foot in diameter. One way to recognize this species in a forest is to notice that the trunks commonly lean over a bit.

Photo by Linda Lee The leaning isn't always prominent and there are better ways to recognize it. On a sizeable tree, the bark will be gray and blocky. Its twigs are mostly smooth and somewhat reddish. The leaves are up to eight or so inches long shaped like a slender football with a distinctive margin of tiny, sharp teeth, especially toward the tip. Some people compare them to the leaves of a peach tree. Chew on one of the leaves and you will be rewarded with a strong and not unpleasant, sour taste, something like sorrel. The shiny green leaves have another surprise in store for us, as they will turn a brilliant red in the fall. It is one of the best fall-color plants around, and for that reason is popular as a yard tree.

Blooming time is mid-summer and flowers appear in spray–like clusters on the ends of branches. Individual flowers are small, white and tubular, and look a bit like a blueberry flower. In fact, the mystery plant is a member of the blueberry, or “heath” family, along with rhododendrons, mountain laurel, and heather. Each flower hangs, prominently down–turned. Again, a wonderful treat is provided: honeybees go crazy for these blooms, and some of the world's finest honey is made from it. Bee keepers sometimes move their little helpers around at just the right time to make sure that these trees are available while in bloom.

As the flowers age, and as the young capsules begin to develop, the flower stalk will curve upward. Eventually, the ripe seed-pods will be sticking straight up, and after splitting open, releasing plenty of tiny, tiny seeds.

Answer to last week’s mystery plant

Maidenhair spleenwort, Asplenium trichomane

Dr. John Nelson is, the curator of the USC Herbarium.

To learn more about the Herbarium, call him at

777-8196. His department also offers free plant identification.

www.herbarium.org