Oxydendrum arboreum aka Sourwood

Oxydendrum arboreum, also known as the sourwood or sorrel tree, is the only species in its genus and belongs to the Ericaceae family. It is native to eastern North America, ranging from southern Pennsylvania to northwest Florida and southern Illinois. The tree can commonly be found in oak-heath forests of the lower chain of the Appalachian Mountains. This deciduous small tree can grow up to 30 feet tall with a trunk diameter of 8 to 12 inches. Its gray bark has a reddish tinge and is deeply furrowed and scaly. The branchlets start off as light yellow-green but later turn reddish-brown. The wood is heavy, hard, and close-grained, with a high polish and specific gravity of 0.7458 and density of 46.48 lb/cu ft. The winter buds are dark red and partly immersed in the bark, with inner scales that enlarge when spring growth begins. The leaves are alternate, oblong to oblanceolate, finely toothed, and sour to the taste. They are four to seven inches long, 1.5 to 2.5 inches wide, and wedge-shaped at the base with a conspicuous midrib and feather-veined. When they emerge from the bud, they are bronze-green and smooth, but when fully grown, they are dark green and shiny above and pale and glaucous below. In autumn, they turn bright scarlet. The petioles are long and slender, with stipules wanting. In mid-summer, small, white, urn-shaped flowers mature on panicles and mature in the fall.