# Piratebush (Buckleya distichophylla)

> A rare shrub of Southern Appalachian slopes that draws on the roots of hemlock and other trees, with leaves in two flat rows and yellow-orange fruit.

Category: Native Shrubs. Grown from seed by Blue Whale Trees. Web version: https://bluewhaletrees.com/plants/piratebush/

![Piratebush (Buckleya distichophylla) leafy branches with lance-shaped leaves set in two flat rows](https://bluewhaletrees.com/img/plants/piratebush-h1610-800.jpg)
*Photo: Jackvanschaik, CC0 · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ABuckleya_distichophylla_leaves.jpg)*

## Facts

- Type: Shrub
- Mature height: 6 to 12 ft
- USDA hardiness zones: 6 to 7
- Grows wild in: Rocky ground, the Appalachians, dry uplands and the forest understory
- Native range: North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia
- Sun: Part, Full
- Soil moisture: Dry, Average
- Growth rate: Medium
- Traits: Rare
- Sold as: Saplings, Seed

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

## Availability

Not yet priced online. Ask at captain@bluewhaletrees.com or leave an email on the web page to be told when it is listed.

## Notes

Piratebush is a rare shrub of the sandalwood family that grows wild only in the mountains of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee. It is a partial parasite: its green leaves make food, but its roots also attach to the roots of nearby trees, most often eastern hemlock, and draw on them. Its leaves stand in two flat rows, so each branch looks like one large compound leaf. About 40 wild stands are known, many with only 20 or 30 stems. North Carolina and Tennessee list it as threatened. Plant it on a rocky, partly sunny slope beside an established hemlock or pine, where its roots can reach a host.

## Size, growth and what to expect

No source rates its growth, and the site carries no relative of the sandalwood family, so our growth estimator uses its medium rate, about a foot and a half a year. It makes a lax, wide-spreading shrub 6 to 12 feet tall, with smooth, light brown bark and green twigs. Its pale green, lance-shaped leaves run 1 to 2.5 inches long.

Small greenish flowers open in April and May at the tips of the new shoots, the male ones in little clusters and the female ones single, with four narrow green bracts. On female plants the fruit ripens in August and September, a fleshy, one-seeded oval about an inch long, turning from green to yellow-orange with the four bracts still at its tip.

It grows wild only in the Blue Ridge and the nearby Ridge and Valley of Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee, between about 1,500 and 3,600 feet. Its home is shallow, rocky soil on slopes and bluffs, in hemlock, pine and oak woods, often with rosebay rhododendron.

## How to grow Piratebush

Piratebush takes part shade and grows most vigorously where more sun reaches it. It wants a shallow, rocky, well-drained soil. In the wild it grows on dry outcrops, slopes and river bluffs. It needs a host tree within reach of its roots, most often eastern hemlock, though pot-grown seedlings have attached to 19 different kinds of trees. Plant it 6 feet from a wall and set plants 6 feet apart. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant it close beside the host tree, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper, and put the native soil back in. It is hard to raise, because a young plant's roots attach to a host only with difficulty. Seed sprouts only after a damp spell, so sow it in fall, outdoors near the roots of a host tree. Seedlings live for a while on the food stored in the seed, then need a host's roots to draw on. Cover the sown seed with wire, since animals eat much of the seed in the wild.

Water weekly through the first summer if rain is short. Browsing animals eat young shoots, so cage young plants. It spreads by underground stems.

Plants are male or female, and only females bear fruit, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. Its most frequent host, eastern hemlock, is being lost to the hemlock woolly adelgid, though piratebush can use other trees. A rust fungus that also grows on Virginia pine infects piratebush.

## Sources

- [NatureServe Explorer: Buckleya distichophylla, Piratebush](https://explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.137794/Buckleya_distichophylla)
- [Flora of North America, vol. 12: Buckleya distichophylla](http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=220002004)
- [Trees and Shrubs Online (International Dendrology Society), after Bean's Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles: Buckleya distichophylla](https://www.treesandshrubsonline.org/articles/buckleya/buckleya-distichophylla/)
- [Castanea 84(1): Investigations Into the Reproductive Biology of the Southern Appalachian Endemic Piratebush (Buckleya distichophylla): Pollination Biology, Fruit Development, and Seed Germination, 2019](https://doi.org/10.2179/0008-7475.84.1.70)
- [North Carolina Natural Heritage Program: List of Rare Plant Species of North Carolina, 2024, revised 11/03/2025](https://www.ncnhp.org/media/831/open)
- [Tennessee Natural Heritage Program: Rare Plant List 2025](https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/environment/natural-areas/documents/na_tn-rare-plant-list.pdf)
- [Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, Division of Natural Heritage: Natural Heritage Resources of Virginia: Rare Plants, June 2026](https://www.dcr.virginia.gov/natural-heritage/document/plantlist-current.pdf)

## Read before planting

- [Ten planting mistakes that quietly kill trees](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/ten-planting-mistakes/index.html.md)
- [Transplanting young trees: timing, water and protection](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/transplanting-young-trees/index.html.md)
- [Protecting young trees from voles, rabbits, deer and squirrels](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/protecting-trees-from-animals/index.html.md)
- [The habitat around a tree is part of the tree](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/habitat-around-a-tree/index.html.md)
- [Invasive vines and shrubs are what is killing your woods](https://bluewhaletrees.com/articles/invasive-vines-and-shrubs/index.html.md)

## Related

- [Planting-site check](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/site-check/index.html.md): for a thrive, struggle or fail verdict on Piratebush, add ?species=piratebush with zone (2 to 10), sun (full, part, shade) and moisture (dry, average, wet) to that address, for example ?species=piratebush&zone=6&sun=part&moisture=average.
- [Companion species for Piratebush](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/companions/index.html.md?species=piratebush): the natives that share its ground and the plants that pair with it in a yard.
- [Growth estimator](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/index.html.md): how the height and trunk projections are made; the estimate itself runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/growth/#species=piratebush
- [Seed sowing planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/index.html.md): how Piratebush is sown, in the chart for every species (treatment, cold days, depth, timing); the dated plan runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/sowing/#species=piratebush
- [Pollination planner](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/index.html.md): what Piratebush needs for a crop and how many to plant, in the table for every species; the planner runs in the browser at https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/pollination/#plants=piratebush:3
- [Bloom and fruit calendar](https://bluewhaletrees.com/tools/calendar/index.html.md): the months Piratebush flowers and fruits, in the grid for every species.