The gorgeous Sourwood tree

While I love gardening in Eastern North Carolina for many reasons, there are a few favorite plants of mine that I wish were better fits for our climate.  I have lived in Massachusetts, Maryland, and a few different parts of North Carolina, so naturally I’ve encountered some plants in previous lives that don’t do quite as well here due to climate or soil differences, but I still have fond memories of them.  One of those plants is the Sourwood tree, Oxydendrum arboreum.

The first time I remember seeing a Sourwood tree, I was perhaps ten years old. My parents had just planted a new tree in the backyard, right in the shallow left field area of the imaginary baseball field my friends and I sometimes played on.  I remember being annoyed that this new tree got in our way and I would occasionally mutter under my breath about how inconvenient it was.  A few years passed, I became interested in plants and landscaping, and went off to college to study horticulture.  Then one summer I came home, looked out the kitchen window to see my parents’ sourwood tree in full bloom and thought, “My God, that’s beautiful.”

Sourwood has small, white, bell-shaped blooms arranged in long, drooping panicles in early summer.  Flowers are fragrant and resemble both lily of the valley (it is sometimes referred to as lily of the valley tree) and the Japanese andromeda shrub.  In fact, Sourwood was previously classified in the genus Andromeda before it was re-named as Oxydendrum.  The blooms sit atop the glossy green foliage and create an effect similar to a snow-covered tree in winter.  Even as the individual flower petals drop, the finger-like stalk of the panicles remain, extending the visual impact. A bronze fruit capsule develops post-bloom, which adds interest.

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Top left: The white, bell-shaped blooms left: The white, bell-shaped blooms of the Sourwood tree are fragrant and resemble both lilies of the valley and the Japanese andromeda shrub.  Photo: Mrs. Gemstone, CC BY-SA 4.0 Top right: The flowers are arranged in long, drooping panicles in early summer. Photo: W. Cutler, CC BY 4.0.  Bottom left: The striking red fall foliage is among the most attractive of all fall colors. Photo:  S. Kaiser, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Bottom right: In summer, the flowers sit atop the glossy green foliage. Photo: J. Robbins, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Sourwood trees are native to a large part of the Central and Eastern United States from Pennsylvania south to Florida and as far west as Ohio and Louisiana.  Although they are found throughout North Carolina, they are much more common, and better suited, to the western half of the state.  Perhaps you’ve seen sourwood honey for sale and wondered where that honey comes from. The answer is that it likely came from areas in the mountains where beehives were placed in proximity to groves of sourwood trees.  While not ideal for our area, they theoretically could be a fit in some butterfly/pollinator gardens or rain gardens, as they attract and provide habitat for many species of butterflies, and are also tolerant to a range of soil moistures.

Matthew Stevens is the County Extension Director and Horticulture Agent for North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pitt County Center.  If you have questions about this article or gardening in general, please contact the Pitt County Extension Master Gardeners at [email protected] or 252-902-1705.