Florida Torreya

Size, growth and what to expect

Florida torreya grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It makes a pyramidal tree of 30 to 40 feet with whorled branches, and old planted trees in North Carolina reach about 45 to 50 feet, with crowns up to 40 feet wide. Trees first bear seed at about 20 years.

Male cones and female flowers open in March and April. On female trees the seed takes two seasons to ripen, from August into early November, inside a leathery, purple-streaked green covering 1 to 1.6 inches long. Squirrels and birds take the seed. The stiff, glossy needles are 0.6 to 1.5 inches long and sharp-tipped.

It grows wild only along a 40-mile stretch of the Apalachicola River's east bank in Florida and just into Georgia. Its home is steep, shaded ravines and bluffs over limestone, kept cool and damp by seepage, under beech, southern magnolia, spruce pine and American holly. A decline of 98.5 percent was measured from 1900 to 2000.

How to grow Florida Torreya

Florida torreya grows in part shade or shade, and in gardens it has also done well in full sun. It wants a moist, well-drained loam or sand rich in organic matter, slightly acid to neutral, and it does not stand flooding. Plant it well away from the Apalachicola River bluffs, so a new tree does not catch the canker there. Plant it 20 feet from a wall and set trees 30 feet apart. Keep it more than 50 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant in early spring or early fall, 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 mulch a wide ring clear of the trunk. Seed must never dry out, and seed sown straight into an outdoor bed comes up worst. Hold it in damp peat and sand at 55 to 65 degrees F for 3 months, then in the refrigerator for 3 more, and sow it in a pot. Germination varies from year to year, and seedlings grow slowly and damp off easily.

Water weekly through the first two summers and in every long dry spell after that, and keep a mulch of leaves over the roots. Deer rub their antlers on young trees and can break or kill them, so fence or cage young trees. Squirrels carry off the seed, so cover ripening seed with wire mesh if you want to keep it.

Trees are male or female, and only females bear seed, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. The wind carries the pollen. A canker caused by the fungus Fusarium torreyae killed nearly all the wild trees, and fungicides have not saved them. Needle blights, root rot and scale insects also attack it. Saplings and seed are shipped only in state and otherwise pickup only.