Citharexylum fruticosum, Fiddlewood

Fiddlewood is tolerant of sandy, dry soil and adapts to a wide range of soil pH including alkaline. Moderate salt tolerance allows planting near the beach. Normally seen as a shrub, Fiddlewood can grow to about 40 feet tall in its native habitat. Fiddlewood makes a nice patio tree planted in the shade of pines or other tall trees. It will also be useful for planting in parking lot buffer strips, along highways and in other arid sites receiving little if any irrigation once established. Pollen can cause some allergy symptoms.

Occurs scattered from Cape Canaveral to Key West and the West Indies.

This plant can be grown as a multi-trunk tree for use in highway median strips and in landscapes, or can be used as a street tree where there is not a need for tall-vehicle clearance beneath the crown. The small stature and low, spreading, branching habit makes pruning for vehicular clearance difficult unless it is properly trained from an early age to develop one main trunk. The effort required initially to train this tree for street tree use, however, may be offset by its advantages.

National champion for this Florida native is 27 x 12 feet in Florida.