Quercus phellos Very Rare the sourwood

the sourwood

a small piece of American folklore hung on an otherwise gracious plant

generous fall of rose-purple pea flowers carried in racemes six to eight inches long

Butterflies and hummingbirds work the orange flowers through the late season

Quercus phellos Very Rare the sourwoodThe first surprise of Quercus phellos is that nobody believes they're an oak. The leaves are narrow and untoothed, willow like, finer than an oak has any right to be, and they turn soft yellow before they fall; only the acorns, small and round and produced by the thousand, give the game away. There is a small joke folded into the name, too. Phellos is the old Greek word for the cork oak, so Linnaeus reached for the name of one tree to christen another