Medicinal Monday - Old Man's Beard!

Chionanthus virginicus, commonly called the Fringe Tree gets its name from its' slightly fragrant spring-blooming flowers. Native to the southeastern United States, this plant is hardy in the north and can be found in Connecticut. Native Americans found several uses for this beautiful deciduous tree.

About the Fringe Tree
This species is a small shrub in the Oleaceae or olive family. The trees can grow up to 30 feet high and have oval, smooth, green leaves in the spring and summer that turn yellow in the fall.  The bark is scaly brown and tinged with red. 

In the spring, the plant has white flowers that feature airy, terminal drooping clusters of fringe-like petals. The fruit of this plant is a fleshy, purple ovoid drupe, similar in shape to an olive that contains a single seed.  The fruit matures in late summer or early fall.  This tree is can be found in rich moist woods and hillsides, near stream banks and in limestone glade margins and on rocky bluffs and ledges.

Medicinal Uses
The most common use of this tree among indigenous Native Americans was to dry the roots of this tree and crush the bark to treat skin inflammations, sores, and wounds. The Choctaw and the Koasati make a decoction of the bark and use it as a wash to treat infected wounds, they also apply a poultice of beaten bark to treat cuts and bruises.

Did You Know...

It is one of the last trees to bear new leaves in the spring, it appears dead until the leaves and flowers appear.

The genus name Chionanthus means snow and describes the flower.

Male flowers are showier than female flowers.

The olive-like fruit that is produced is a good source of food for birds.

Other names for this tree include Old man's beard, snowdrop tree, white fringe, and poison ash.