''Halesia carolina'', commonly called Carolina silverbell or little silverbell, is a

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in the

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to the southeastern United States.

Description

It is a vigorous, fast-growing

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

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growing to tall by broad, bearing masses of pendent, bell-shaped white flowers which appear in spring before the leaves. The flowers are followed by green, four-winged fruit. The leaves turn yellow in autumn.

Range

The range of little silverbells is very restricted. It is principally in the

panhandle of Florida The Florida Panhandle (also West Florida and Northwest Florida) is the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Florida; it is a salient roughly long and wide, lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia on the north, and the G ...

, with isolated smaller outlier populations in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi. In the cited reference, this species is referred to as ''Halesia parviflora''. The "champion" ''Halesia carolina'' on the 2015

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is quite removed from its natural range, being situated in

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Taxonomy

There is a great deal of confusion in the four-winged American silverbells. Four principal species names have been used: ''H. carolina'', ''H. parviflora'', '' H. monticola'', and '' H. tetraptera''. The taxon being described here is the one that has also been described as ''H. parviflora''. Some botanists have discarded the name ''H. carolina'' because the original material is viewed as ambiguous; others maintain that the original material is this species, so ''carolina'' is here being used instead of ''parviflora'', since ''H. carolina'' L. has clear precedence.

Cultivation

In cultivation in the United Kingdom, ''H. carolina'' Vestita Group has gained the

Royal Horticultural Society The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), founded in 1804 as the Horticultural Society of London, is the UK's leading gardening charity. The RHS promotes horticulture through its five gardens at Wisley (Surrey), Hyde Hall (Essex), Harlow Carr (Nort ...

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. It requires an

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or neutral soil, in a partially shaded position.

References

File:Halesia_carolina_(2).jpg File:Halesia_carolina_(5).jpg File:Halesia_carolina_24zz.jpg

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q3125935 carolina Flora of the Southeastern United States Flora of the Appalachian Mountains Natural history of the Great Smoky Mountains Plants described in 1759 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus