Neviusia alabamensis A. Gray

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Credits

Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

Recommended citation
'Neviusia alabamensis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/neviusia/neviusia-alabamensis/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

Other taxa in genus

    Glossary

    alternate
    Attached singly along the axis not in pairs or whorls.
    calyx
    (pl. calyces) Outer whorl of the perianth. Composed of several sepals.
    ovate
    Egg-shaped; broadest towards the stem.

    References

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    Credits

    Article from Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles

    Recommended citation
    'Neviusia alabamensis' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/neviusia/neviusia-alabamensis/). Accessed 2024-03-29.

    A deciduous shrub 4 to 6 ft high, with erect stems and spreading branches, making a rounded bush, wider than it is high; branchlets at first covered with fine down. Leaves alternate, ovate-oblong, 1 to 312 in. long, those of the barren shoots shallowly lobed, finely double-toothed; downy on the veins beneath; stalk up to 13 in. long, downy. Flowers produced in a cluster at the end of short leafy side-shoots in April and May. Each flower is borne on a slender, downy stalk 34 to 1 in. long; it has no petals, but a conspicuous bunch of white stamens 14 to 13 in. long, and a calyx about 34 in. across, with leaf-like, toothed lobes. Bot. Mag., t. 6806.

    Native of Alabama, where, apparently, it is only known in one or two spots. It was found on the cliffs of Black Warrior River, at Tuscaloosa, in 1858, by the Rev. R. D. Nevius. It is quite hardy in England, and is easily increased by fairly soft cuttings placed in heat. Its beauty in some parts of N. America is so great that it has been called the ‘Alabama Snow-wreath’, owing to the snowy whiteness and profusion of its feathery blossom. But out-of-doors in England it is never really pure white but of a dull greenish white. Forced early into blossom under glass, its colour is much purer, and it is then very elegant and beautiful. In March 1907, about fifty years after its discovery, a letter was received at Kew from Mr Nevius, then at Tacoma, Washington, from which it appears that this shrub is not always a success in its native land. He says: ‘I have had it growing in many places in the open, but it does not do well. Even at Tuscaloosa, where I discovered it, a hedge I planted of it in the churchyard flowered but sparingly.’