Swamp Titi – Cyrilla racemiflora

Small tree with short, stout, crooked trunk and spreading crown or a much-branched shrub, with glossy foliage, profuse, tiny, whitish flowers, and clusters of tiny, brown or yellow fruit.

Height: 30’ / Diameter: 8”

Deciduous or evergreen in the South.

Leaves: clustered near end of twig; narrowly oblong, usually widest beyond middle; blunt or slightly notched at tip; without teeth; hairless; shiny green above, paler beneath; turn orange and red in autumn.

Bark: gray and smooth, becoming reddish-brown, thin, and scaly.

Flowers: ⅛” wide; with 5 pointed white petals, sometimes pinkish-tinted; fragrant; short-stalked; crowded in upright narrow clusters 4-6” long; in early summer.

Fruit: ⅛” long; beadlike or egg-shaped, pointed or rounded, brown or yellow, in clusters; mature in late summer.

Habitat: moist soils of river flood plains and riverbanks, flatwoods, and borders of sandy swamps and ponds. Found in the Southeast.