PlantFiles: False Mastic
Sideroxylon foetidissimum

It is gorgous tropical tree that is found in scattered locations mostly on barrier islands from Volusia County on the East Coast and Manatee County on the West Coast to the Florida Keys and West Indies. It also found in some inland locales in South Florida. One inland locale I experenced them was at the Rafael Sanchez Trail on the Lake Okeechobee Ridge near Port Mayaca in Martin County. The trail had very tall stands of them mixed in with bald cypress, hackberry, sabal palms and strangler fig trees with a understory of Marlberry and White Stopper.
Another place I seen them was at John D. MacArthur Beach State Park in Palm, Beach County. They were found in a maritime hammock with alot of other trees of tropical orgin. In comparision to ones on the Lake Okeechobee Ridge, they didnt grow as tall and they had a rounded canopy that seemed branch out further not growning straight up as the ones on the Ridge. I am assuming salt spray is the reason and also they didnt have to compete with surrounding tall trees.
As a landscape tree. I believe they can be grown out of their natural growing range. I have a 6 foot tree planted at my parent's house in Okeechobee City. In 2010 it has seen hard freezes without dropping leaf. I had some one footers that got some leaf burn but not to bad.

Native to Fl. Keys found in hardwood hammocks. Heartwood bright orange. Glossy , yellowish green leaves have undulate margins. Pale yellow flowers have an odor off rotten cheese. Yellowish orange fruit have a single seed.