Illicium floridanum

• BOTANICAL NAME: Illicium floridanum
• PRONUNCIATION: ill-LISS-i-um flor-i-DANE-um
• COMMON NAME: Florida Anise Tree
• FAMILY: Illiciaceae
• NATIVITY: Florida west to Louisiana, in moist woods and seepage areas
• GROWTH HABIT: Upright rounded shrub.
• SIZE: (4) 6 - 10' tall and slightly less in spread, about 4 - 6' in the mid Atlantic states
• HARDINESS: Zone 7 - 9
• CULTURE: Partial to full shade in moist, almost wet soils.
• LANDSCAPE USE: Good plant for naturalizing. Can be used in groups or in the shrub border.
• FOLIAGE: Alternate, elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, entire margin, 2 - 6" long.
  All parts of the plant have a strong odor.
• BUDS:
• FLOWERS: Single or multiple flowers in the axils of the leaves, 1 - 2" in diameter.
  Many linear petals maroon in color. Flowers in April to May. The flowers have a
  unique odor that borders on malodorous and is probably over the line.
• FRUIT: Follicles arranged in a whorl maturing brown.
• PROPAGATION: Seed, cuttings.
• PESTS: None serious.
• CULTIVARS:
  • `Alba' - white flowered form
  • `Hally's Comet' - flowers more red with petals curled and reflexed
  • * A pink flowered form exists but I have not found a cultivar name for the plant