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''Halesia carolina'', commonly called Carolina silverbell or little silverbell, is a
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...
in the
family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
Styracaceae The Styracaceae are a small family of flowering plants in the order Ericales, containing 12 genera and about 160 species of trees and shrubs. The family occurs in warm temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The family is c ...
,
native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...
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 ...
shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...
or
tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
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
American Forests American Forests is a 501(c)(3) non-profit conservation organization, established in 1875, and dedicated to protecting and restoring healthy forest ecosystems. The current headquarters are in Washington, D.C. Activities The mission of American ...
'
National Register of Champion Trees The National Register of Champion Trees is a list of the largest tree specimens found in the United States as reported to American Forests by the public. A tree on this list is called a National Champion Tree. The National Register of Champion Tr ...
is quite removed from its natural range, being situated in
Roxbury, New Hampshire Roxbury is a town in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 220 at the 2020 census. History The smallest town in Cheshire County, Roxbury was incorporated in 1812 from portions of Nelson, Marlborough, and Keene. B ...
.


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 ...
's
Award of Garden Merit The Award of Garden Merit (AGM) is a long-established annual award for plants by the British Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). It is based on assessment of the plants' performance under UK growing conditions. History The Award of Garden Merit ...
. It requires an
acid In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...
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