Photo: jrcagle, CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Loblolly Bay

Gordonia lasianthus

Also called holly-bay, gordonia, tan bay, black laurel.

Fragrant white flowers like a camellia's from June into September, on a narrow evergreen tree of southern bays for wet, acid ground.

Showy flowersEvergreenTolerates wet soilStreet tree

Type: Medium tree
Mature height: 35–60 ft
USDA zones: 7–9
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Average, Wet
Grows wild in: Sandy barrens, swamps and wet flats
Native range: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Loblolly bay is an evergreen of the tea family, a narrow, columnar tree with glossy, toothed leaves, a few of which turn scarlet at a time before they drop. It grows wild in the bays, pocosins and wet pine flats of the southern coastal plain. It is a desirable ornamental that is not easy to cultivate. It is finicky, so it does best where the wet, acid ground of its home is matched. Its slim crown should suit a street with little room overhead, where the soil stays moist. Set it at the edge of a pond or in a low corner that stays wet, where its white flowers stand out against the dark leaves all summer.

Size, growth and what to expect

Loblolly bay grows at a medium pace, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator. Young trees in the wild averaged about 2 feet a year over their first 15 years, most of them probably sprouts. Expect 35 to 60 feet with a narrow crown 10 to 15 feet wide.

The flowers open a few at a time from June into September, white and 2 to 3 inches across, each lasting a day or two. Bumblebees, flies and hummingbirds visit them. The woody capsules turn brown and split in September and October, and the last are open by mid-December.

It grows wild on the coastal plain from Albemarle Sound in North Carolina to the Apalachicola River in Florida, with scattered stands in coastal Alabama and southern Mississippi. On its home sites the water table stands at or near the surface six to nine months a year. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Alabama.

How to grow Loblolly Bay

Loblolly bay grows in full sun or part shade, in a wet or constantly moist soil that is strongly acid and sandy or peaty. It prefers part shade and takes full sun only where the soil stays moist. It will not take lime or salt, and at the northern edge of its range it needs shelter from winter wind and sun. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 15 feet apart.

Saplings ship potted. The roots are fragile, so keep the root ball whole when you plant. Set it in a hole wider than the pot and no deeper, with the root flare at the soil line. Put the native soil back in and mulch a wide ring clear of the trunk. Dry the brown capsules in a paper bag until they split. The seed needs no chilling. Sow it in spring on damp, sandy soil, where it comes up within a few weeks.

Water deeply every week through the first two summers and in every dry spell after that, since the shallow roots die in drought. In one nursery, rooted cuttings whose pots dried even in one spot died within hours. Deer browse the leaves and sprouts heavily, so cage the tree for the first few years. It needs little pruning.

Each flower carries both male and female parts, so there are no male and female trees to pair. Root rot can trouble young trees. Borers attack weakened trees, and aphids and caterpillars feed on the leaves, but no disease is serious. The thin bark makes it tender to fire, though a burned tree sprouts again from the root collar.

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

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