Photo: James Steakley, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

American Snowbell

Styrax americanus

Also called storax.

Fragrant white bells with swept-back petals cover a slender native shrub in spring, for wet woods, pond edges and shady, acid ground.

Showy flowersTolerates wet soilTolerates shadeWildlife value

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 6–15 ft
USDA zones: 6–10
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Floodplain forests, stream banks, swamps and wet flats
Native range: 17 states and the District of Columbia, north to Ohio, south to Florida and west to Texas
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Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia
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American snowbell is a slender, open-branched shrub or small tree of the southeastern lowlands. Its leaves feed the caterpillars of the promethea silk moth, and bees do most of its pollinating. Illinois and Indiana list it as threatened. It does not sucker from the roots, so it stays where it is planted. Set it beside a patio or a woodland path, where the hanging bells can be seen and smelled up close.

Size, growth and what to expect

American snowbell grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. Most plants reach 6 to 10 feet tall and as wide. Some grow to 15 feet, with a wide, open crown.

The white bells are about half an inch long, with five petals swept back. They hang singly or in clusters of up to four from April into early June. The hairy gray fruit, about a quarter inch across, ripens in August and drops by November. Birds and other animals eat it.

It grows wild from Virginia to Florida and west to east Texas. Up the Mississippi and Ohio valleys it reaches southeast Missouri, southern Illinois and southern Indiana. Its home is wet woods, swamps, floodplains and stream banks, sometimes in standing water.

How to grow American Snowbell

American snowbell grows well in part shade or shade, and it takes full sun where the soil stays moist. It wants a rich, acid soil that stays moist to wet, and it tolerates wet feet. It does well in moist sandy loam. Give it room, since it does poorly crowded among other shrubs and trees. Plant it 5 feet from a wall, and set plants 6 feet apart for a group. It stays short enough to plant within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Sow fresh, cleaned seed outdoors in fall. For spring, hold it damp in the refrigerator for 60 to 90 days first. Pick the seed from the shrub as it turns glossy brown, not from the ground.

Water weekly through the first two summers unless the ground stays wet. Young plants are tender, so give them a sheltered spot their first winters. Deer and rabbits browse young shrubs, so cage them for a year or two. Prune in winter, and only as needed to shape it.

American snowbell carries both male and female parts in each flower, but it may set little or no seed with its own pollen. Plant two or more from different seed, since bees carry the pollen between plants. No serious insect or disease troubles it.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

Sources (11)