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Wednesday - June 06, 2012
From: Elmendorf, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Rare or Endangered Plants, Propagation, Trees
Title: Propogating snowbells from Elmendorf TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
Is it possible to propagate Styrax platanifolius and Halesia diptera from cuttings? If yes, what is the process?ANSWER:
Styrax platanifolius (Sycamoreleaf snowbell) - native to Bexar County
From our webpage on this plant:
"A shrub or small tree with dark gray bark. Should not be disturbed. Rare and endangered. Leaves broadly ovate to almost circular, up to 4 inches long, with smooth margins and a broad tip, or with a terminal lobe and a lateral one on each side of it, and a lobed to rounded base. Flowers in small clusters, drooping, with 5 white petals up to 5/8 inch long, suggesting little bells, opening in April and May. Fruit a rounded capsule about 3/8 inch in diameter, with a short tip, the base covered with a remnant (calyx) of the flower."
One of our jobs is the protection and preservation of rare and endangered plants, so we will pass on this one.
Halesia diptera (Two-wing silverbell) - native to East Texas
"Description: Cuttings are difficult to root; those that do root should not be transplanted until growth flushes the following spring. Seeds require a period of after-ripening followed by cold, moist stratification."
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