PlantFiles: Fringe Tree, Old Man's Beard, Grancy Graybeard
Chionanthus virginicus

I planted two sticks (3feet high) in1982 in our front yard. One was lost in hurricaine Hugo, but the remaining tree is about 20 feet high, talk about slow growing! but It's beautiful, I have three neighbors that have them now. We have moved to a downsized now and I would like to start another, I just read how to propagate it, hope I have enough time in my life left to see one grown, This stock came from Pensacola, Fl. But the family nursery has closed.

Known locally as GRANDDADDY'S
GREYBEARD it is a quite attractive wild shrub, that blooms just after the Azaleas. Great spring color in the woods, and a decent yard shrub.

This plant is commonly seen growing as a smaller shrub in the understory of the piedmont and sandhills in S.C.'s midlands. I has a few seedlings from one that we used as a specimen at our old house in Lexington, S.C. they came up in a pot that we kept under the bush. We used it to bring part of our Confederate Jasmine when we moved and the along with a purple heart came up in the pot.

I like it, but so do the deer. As soon as it bloomed, they ate all the foilage and blooms, luckily it's resprouting, but too late to enjoy it.

Beutiful when in bloom, an excellant understory tree in the southern part of its range.

Plants are either male or female; both are needed to produce fruit (dark blue grape-like) with viable seeds. The male flower-heads are the showier.

My neighbor has one, and the smell is wonderful! Hoping to get some cuttings and get a few plants started for myself.

I have grown this plant in several different places. It will grow on extremely poor soil, fertile silt loams, and even in Florida sand. The blooms are highly fragrant.

This is a large shrub or small tree, reaching a height of 20 feet or so, with one or few short trunks and a rounded crown. In the wild, it may reach 25 to 30 feet with an equal spread.

It has opposite, deciduous, elliptical dark green glossy leaves. In late spring, its showy fringe-like blooms cascade downward like the white beard of a wise old man. The black fleshy egg shaped fruit mature in late summer.

Fringetree is attractive to a variety of insects while in bloom, and to birds and small mammals when fruiting. A popular ornamental due to its delicate, fragrant white flowers. Plant in full sun to partial shade. Fringetree does well as an "understory tree", thriving in the filtered shade of larger canopy trees.