TREES usually of small size and high ornamental value. Leaves simple, alternate, mostly evergreen. Flowers perfect, regular, in many-flowered clusters. Fruits, dry capsules or berry-like drupes.
Sonnwoon (Oxydendrum arboreum). Slender-stemmed tree, with oblong, round-topped head. Bark smooth, reddish gray, scaly. Wood reddish brown, heavy, fine-grained, hard. Buds axillary, small, partly hidden, red. Leaves alternate, deciduous, membraneous, oblong or lanceolate, entire, 3 to 6 inches long, smooth. Flowers June or July, perfect, in pan
ides, 7 to 8 inches long, of racemed white bells, narrowed and frilled at the tops. Fruit a downy capsule, 5-celled; seeds numerous, needle-like. Preferred habitat, moist woods. Dist.: Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana; south to Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Uses: Ornamental tree, valued for its flowers and vivid scarlet autumn foliage.