Oxydendrum arboreum (Sour Wood)

Oxydendrum arboreum (Sour Wood) is a deciduous little tree with a trunk 8 to 12 inches in diameter and a height of 20 to 30 feet. The tree has sharply serrated, sour-tasting alternating leaves that look like laurel. Red-brown bark with deep vertical furrows separating flat, pointy ridges. Small white urn-shaped blooms develop on panicles in mid-summer. The tree produces 5-valved capsules that are carried on panicles and mature in the fall, releasing the small 2-winged seeds. The color of the leaves in the fall ranges from crimson to reddish-purple.