Black Titi

Description

Botanical Name:    Cyrilla racemiflora, syn. Cyrilla parvifolia

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 matures at 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. If left to grow as a shrub, it can form thickets, particularly in wet areas.

Semi-evergreen in mild winters, deciduous in colder ones. If it does go deciduous, it gives pretty fall leaf colors of yellow, orange, red, and burgundy.

Grow in the sun, part sun, or part shade areas of your garden.

Blooms showy white clusters of fragrant flowers late spring into summer.  The flower sprays, or racemes (hence its species name), are 3 – 6 inches long. The flowers bloom on old wood.

Its native habitat is low, wet pinelands and stream beds, but it adapts to normal gardening conditions.

Butterflies, bees, and other pollinators love the nectar from the blooms. Birds and other critters eat the fruit. Is not deer resistant.

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 1.5 – 3 feet tall.

This plant in 7-gallon containers is 3 – 5 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