Louisiana Plant ID | Symplocos tinctoria (sweetleaf)

FAMILY: SYMPLOCACEAE

ALTERNATE COMMON NAME: horse-sugar

LEAVES: tardily deciduous, simple, alternate, elliptic, 5-6” long by 1-2” wide, tips acute to acuminate, margins entire; midrib yellow later in season; leaves taste like green apple when chewed

FLOWER: perfect (bisexual), yellow, 5 yellow petals, 5 sepals, many stamens, ovary partly inferior, flowers closely set in sessile ball-like clusters on twigs of the previous season, appearing before new growth commences in spring

FRUIT: oblong drupe, green when immature, maturing brown-purple, to 0.5” long

TWIGS: younger twigs sparsely pubescent, grayish, older twigs brown and covered with a waxy bloom, later sloughing; pith chambered

BARK: bark grayish brown, smooth to lightly furrowed, sometimes with corky outgrowths

FORM: shrub to small tree, to ca. 30’ tall and 10” dbh

HABITAT: mesic forests including mixed hardwood-loblolly pine, small stream, hardwood slope, and southern mesophytic hardwood forests.

WETLAND DESIGNATION: Facultative (FAC): Occurs in wetlands or non-wetlands of the Atlantic and Gulf Coast Plain Region

RANGE: southeastern US [USGS Range Map]

USES: a dye can be extracted from leaves and bark (hence the specific epithet “tinctoria”)

WILDLIFE: moderate deer browse utilized most heavily in late fall and winter; fruits eaten by birds; important pollinator plant; host for larval King’s hairstreak butterfly

Best Recognition Features:

semi-evergreen (leaves often persist through winter) shrub to small tree
thick tardily deciduous elliptic leaves with entire margins, yellow midrib; chewed leaf tastes like green apple
fruit an oblong drupe to 0.5” long, maturing brown-purple, the ovary wholly inferior in fruit with calyx teeth persisting atop fruit

School of Renewable Natural Reources	Louisiana Plant Identification and Interactive Virtual Tours Dr. Chris S. Reid, Project Director \| creid4@lsu.edu LSU School of Renewable Natural Resources LSU AgCenter, Baton Rouge, LA © 2003-2020 website problems or broken links: mbowen@agcenter.lsu.edu page revised: 15-Jan-2020 4:11 PM msb	LSU AgCenter
Provide Website Feedback \| Accessibility Statement