Photo: Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Fevertree

Pinckneya bracteata

Also called Georgia bark, feverbark, pinckneya, Pinckneya pubens.

Sepals of pink, rose or white, as showy as a poinsettia's, light up this small tree of southern swamp edges for weeks in early summer.

Showy flowersTolerates wet soilRare

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 10–20 ft
USDA zones: 7–9
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Stream banks, the coast, swamps and wet flats
Native range: Florida, Georgia and South Carolina See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Fevertree is the only species in its genus, a small tree of the coffee family found wild only in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Its inner bark was once used at home to treat malaria and other fevers, which gave the tree its name. John and William Bartram found it near Fort Barrington on the Altamaha River in 1765, on the trip that turned up the Franklin tree. NatureServe ranks it apparently secure overall but critically imperiled in South Carolina, where it is now known from a single county. Florida lists it as threatened. It belongs at a pond edge or in a damp corner, where the pink sepals show across the garden.

Size, growth and what to expect

Fevertree grows at a medium pace, a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. It makes a tree of 10 to 20 feet, with a crown about 15 feet wide and often several trunks. In the wild it can reach 30 feet.

It blooms from May into August. The true flowers are greenish yellow tubes about an inch long. On some of them one sepal swells into a pink, rose or white bract up to 4 inches long, and these stay showy for weeks. A round brown capsule about half an inch wide ripens in fall and hangs on through winter.

It grows wild only on the coastal plain from southern South Carolina across Georgia to the Florida panhandle, with outliers in north-central Florida. It lives in ground kept wet all year by seeping ground water, at stream heads, in bayheads and at the edges of seepage swamps, usually fewer than 30 to a site.

How to grow Fevertree

Fevertree flowers best in full sun, and in part shade it grows but blooms poorly. It wants a moist, acid soil and takes periodic flooding, but not drought. A layer of mulch keeps the roots cool. Plant it 15 feet from a wall, and set trees 10 feet apart. It may stand within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant it dormant, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. The seed needs no treatment before sowing. Sow it outdoors in fall, in a moist, acid bed.

Water weekly through the first two summers, and in any dry spell after that. Guard young stems with wire against deer and rabbits for the first few years. Prune while it is young for a strong frame, or let the root suckers make a clump.

Fevertree will not set seed with its own pollen, so plant two or more from different seed. Bumblebees and hummingbirds carry the pollen from tree to tree. It has no serious pests or diseases, though whiteflies can show up. It is short-lived, and in rich, well-drained garden soil it suckers less and grows more slowly.

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

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