Halesia diptera

The two-winged silverbell is a member of the Styrax or Styracaceae family and is small tree or large shrub that is native to floodplains, stream banks, wet woods and swampy areas primarily along the Gulf Coast from South Carolina and northern Florida west to Texas. As a small tree, it grows up to 9 m in height.

• Leaves deciduous are oval to obovate, 8.1–17 cm long and 5.5–12 cm wide, irregularly toothed, dark green, petiole 15–35 mm long; leaves turn yellow in fall.
• Flowers are showy, in drooping clusters of 3–6 white or pinkish-white, bell-shaped, 2 cm long and 1.2 cm wide, appearing in April about the time leaves are emerging.
• Fruit is an oblong drupe with 2 flattened wings down the sides, drying out to reddish brown by fall and persisting into winter. This distinguishes it from the other species of Halesia, which have 4 wings on the fruit.
• Bark exfoliates in thin scales.