Florida Fiddlewood Citharexylum fruticosum 20 Seeds USA Company

Florida Fiddlewood is a small to medium sized tree or shrub native to Florida and the Caribbean. It typically reaches a height of 15 to 25 feet but can be taller. It has slender arching branches, a dense crown with an oval to irregular shape and produces several trunks. The bark is reddish brown to gray and furrowed with age. Leaves are green, shiny, alternate, simple, entire, spatulate in shape and 4 - 8 inches long. Flowers are borne in showy hanging clusters, numerous blooms are small, white, 5-petaled, about 1/3 inch long, fragrant, with male and female flowers on different plants. Fruits are showy round, fleshy berries, yellow ripening to black, 1/2 inch in diameter, containing multiple seeds. Flowers and fruits attract insects and birds. The plant is used in herbal medicine. In cultivation, the tree tolerates a range of soil types if well drained. It has landscape applications pruned into a tree, hedge or espalier, as a buffer strip or median plant, and near a deck or patio. It is suited for coastal locations, for reclamation and in a native plant or aroma garden.

Growing Instructions

1. Scarify the seeds by nicking or sanding the seed coat.
2. Soak the seeds in water for several hours.
3. Put a mixture of potting soil and sand or perlite into a pot with drainage holes in the base. The soil should be moist and well-drained.
4. Sow the seeds on the soil.
5. Cover the seeds with a thin layer of soil.
6. Water the seeds. Keep the soil moist but not wet.
7. When the plants are a few inches tall, they can be transplanted.