Black Titi

Description

Botanical Name:    Cyrilla racemiflora

Common Name:    Black Titi, Leatherwood, Titi, Swamp Titi, White Titi, Red Titi, Swamp Cyrilla, American Cyrilla, Burnwood Bark, Palo Colorado

Description:    Very cool looking shrub or small tree that is a Florida native. It usually gets about 20-30′ tall x 10-15′ wide. Has a moderate growth rate. It grows like a shrub for a few years, then starts its more upright growth to look more like a tree. Has pretty cinnamon-colored trunks with bark that flakes and contorted stems. Semi-evergreen in mild winters, deciduous in colder ones. Likes sun, part sun, or part shade. Blooms showy white clusters of flowers late spring into summer that the pollinators love. Its native habitat is low, wet pinelands and stream beds, but it adapts to normal gardening conditions. The bees make honey from the flowers. Birds and other critters eat the fruit.

Not salt tolerant of inundation by salty or brackish water. Some tolerance to salty wind but not direct salt spray.

This plant in 3-gallon containers is 2 – 4 feet tall.

This plant in 7-gallon containers is 4 – 6 feet tall.

Plant Lore:  In hurricane-prone areas, this is a great shrub to plant along the ditches to help prevent flooding.

Florida Hardiness Zones 8 – 11