Fringe Tree
Photo by Mark McKnight
Scientific Description: Fringe Tree - Chionanthus virginicus - is a native, perennial, deciduous, hardy shrub or short tree with showy, fragrant, creamy-white flowers forming from May to June. It is a member of the olive (Oleacea) family. It grows to a height of 12 to 20 feet tall and with a similar width. It grows well in full sun to partial shade in a moist, well-drained soil. It prefers moist stream banks, hillsides, rocky bluffs and moist glades. This species will do well as a lawn specimen or in woodlands and as a shrub in a border.
The flowers of this species are an inch long and 1/16 inch wide, and they hang in show-stopping branched clusters 4 to 6 inches long.
While this species has both male and female specimens, the female produces the brown to black fruit in the autumn, and the male produces far more showy flowers in the late spring.
The fringe tree is one of the last tree species to produce its leaves in the spring. It looks dead at that time, but be patient. You will be rewarded!
Habitat Value: Many animals rely on this species as a food source at some time in their life cycle. In particular, squirrels, deer, song birds and other bird species. This plant has no serious insect or diseases problems. It has some susceptibility to scale and borers, and it is occasionally susceptible to Emerald Ash borers.
Landscape Value: By Matt Whitaker of WMWA Landscape Architects – There is a third category of plant I use and call Large Shrub/Small Tree. Plants that fall into this category are in high demand for urban lawns and gardens, and I am always looking for new candidates that fit. The fringe tree or grandpappy graybeard (there are 2-3 more similar names for it) has always been at the top of this list and mine. I learned about this plant from my father and grandfather, who noted you had to flag them in bloom so you could find them to transplant later; the trees have such generic characteristics that they blended into the forest the rest of the year. That said, its lustrous dark green leaves are another reason to grow this plant. A slow to moderate grower, they rarely require pruning and are long-lived. Even when small, they steal the show in the spring with their display of beardlike blooms. There was a decades-old specimen in Virginia between my house and office that had to be 30-feet around but not taller than 12-feet that made me pause in wonder every year. Fringe trees are common on the trade and often planted in urban areas. Rumors of a rose-colored variant in the wild have excited plant growers, but one has yet to be brought to the market.
