Halesia
Halesia, also known as silverbell or snowdrop tree, is a small genus of four or five species of deciduous large shrubs or small trees in the family Styracaceae.
Range
They are native to eastern Asia and eastern North America.Description
They grow to tall, and have alternate, simple ovate leaves 5–16 cm long and 3–8 cm broad. The flowers are pendulous, white or pale pink, produced in open clusters of 2–6 flowers, each flower being 1–3 cm long. The fruit is a distinctive, oblong dry drupe 2–4 cm long. All species except H. diptera have four narrow longitudinal ribs or wings on fruit; diptera only has two, making it the most distinctive of the group.Species
- Halesia carolina L.; little silverbell – eastern North America
- Halesia diptera Ellis; two-wing silverbell – southeastern North America
- Halesia macgregorii Chun; Chinese silverbell or Macgregor's silverbell – eastern China
- Halesia tetraptera L.; common silverbell – eastern North America;
- Halesia monticola Sarg.; mountain silverbell – southern Appalachians and southwards A.E.Murray; H. tetraptera var. monticola cf.
Taxonomy
The taxonomy and naming of the American species is confused and extensively disputed. The first dispute is over the exact identity of the specimen first named by Linnaeus as H. carolina; some contend that it is the same as H. parviflora, while others say it is the same as H. tetraptera. The second dispute is over whether H. monticola is sufficiently distinct from the other species to merit specific recognition or not. Neither question has yet been conclusively answered. The treatment here includes both H. carolina and H. monticola.A phylogenetic study suggests that Halesia is not monophyletic and as a result, the Chinese species Halesia macgregorii has been transferred into a new genus Perkinsiodendron, named after American botanist and Styracaceae expert Janet Russell Perkins.
The genus was named after Stephen Hales by John Ellis, publishing the name in the tenth edition of Linnaeus's Systema Naturae in 1759. The name is conserved as the same name had been used in an obscure earlier publication in 1756 for a different plant.