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Nuxia floribunda (Forest Elder) - A small to medium sized tree that typically reaches to 25 to 35 feet tall with a full rounded crown and often with multiple somewhat crooked trunks. The trunks and major stems have a fissured rough gray-brown bark with smaller purplish branches, thickened at nodes, holding elliptic 3- to 5-inch-long elliptic dark green undulating leaves that have tiny teeth along the margins. Flowering typically occurs in late winter to spring but occasionally also in fall with masses of tiny sweetly fragrant white flowers in panicles held at the branch tips.
Plant in full to part day sun and irrigate regularly to occasionally - though noted as a tree that likes more water, it has done very well in dry unirrigated parklands and plantings in Santa Barbara, making it a plant that both tolerates dry conditions and regular irrigation. Fairly tender but able to tolerate short duration temperatures down into the mid 20s° F, so best along coast or in other mild areas in Southern California. This is a very attractive small tree with a root system does not lift pavements, so suitable for street plants and near building foundations.
Nuxia floribunda grows naturally from the Cape of South Africa north to eastern and central tropical Africa where it is widespread in forests and forest margins in the coastal mountains, often along waterways. Nuxia was previously placed in the large family Loganiaceae and then moved with Buddleja into Buddlejaceae, but most recent molecular studies have placed it in the family Stilbaceae, while Buddleja was placed in the greatly expanded Scrophulariaceae. The name of the genus honors the French amateur botanist M. Jean-Baptiste François de la Nux (1702-1772) and the specific epithet means "many-flowered" or "flowering profusely", which this plant certainly is known to do. This plant was first introduced into the California nursery trade in the early 1940s by Evans and Reeves Nursery in West Los Angeles, California and was then described as a rival to Pittosporum undulatum as a useful dense shrub. Our plants from seed collected from two trees growing near the historic Hill Adobe in downtown Santa Barbara. There is also a nice specimen tree in Orpet Park on Santa Barbara's Riviera, which Peter Riedel described as "a striking plant when completely covered by its cloud of white flowers." Nice specimens are also found on several private estates in the Santa Barbara area. The beautiful specimen shown in on our 2nd image is one photographed by Don Hodel at the Los Angeles County Arboretum.
This information about Nuxia floribunda displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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