Flora of North America species comparison

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Litsea aestivalis

pond-spice
Habit Shrubs, to 3 m. Branches glabrous or sparsely pubescent, with typical zigzag shape.
Leaf

blade lanceolate or narrowly elliptic, 1.5-4 × 0.4-1.5 cm, mostly glabrous;

surfaces abaxially frequently with spreading hairs along base of midrib.
Inflorescences

in axils of deciduous bracts, flowers in 4-5-flowered pseudoumbels.
Flowers

ca. 6 mm diam., from exposed overwintering buds;

tepals yellow.
Staminate flowers

stamens 9;

pistillode absent.
Pistillate flowers

staminodes 9;

style slender;

stigma capitate.
Drupe

red, ca. 10 mm.

Litsea aestivalis
Phenology Flowering late winter–spring.
Habitat Within basins of limesinks or other depressional ponds or Carolina bays
Elevation 10-200 m (0-700 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; VA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Litsea aestivalis is mostly an outer coastal plain species, although we do have a substantial number of coastal plain records for the extreme southern Appalachians.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Lauraceae > Litsea
Synonyms Laurus aestivalis, Glabraria geniculata, L. geniculata
Name authority (Linnaeus) Fernald: Rhodora 47: 140. (1945)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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