Identifying Characteristics
| Size/Form: | The sugarberry is a medium-sized tree that reaches 60 to 80 feet in height, 2 to 3 feet in diameter. It has a straight, short bole and a broad, rounded, and open crown with spreading or slightly drooping branches. The root system is also spreading. |
| Leaves: | Leaves are simple, alternate, and deciduous. The leaves are 2 to 5 inches long, 1-3 inches wide, oval to elliptical-shaped. The leaves taper to an acute apex and have wedge-shaped or asymmetrically rounded leaf bases. Leaf margins are entire or with a few teeth near the leaf apex. Leaf surfaces are light green, smooth, or occasionally rough above, paler and smooth below. Petioles are slender and smooth, about 1/3 inch long. |
| Twigs: | The twigs are slender, zigzagging, and greenish-brown to light reddish-brown. The pith is commonly chambered at the nodes and homogenous between the nodes. |
| Bark: | The bark on the sugarberry tree is gray-brown to silvery gray, thin and smooth with prominent, corky, wart-like structures on the outer bark. |
| Flowers: | The flowers of this tree are very small (1/8 inch) and greenish-white. They appear in the spring. |
| Fruit: | The fruit is an orange to yellowish, one-seeded drupe about ¼ inch in length with a thick skin and a thin layer of flesh. Each fruit is found on short stalks at the base of the leaf. |
| Similar Trees on the Florida 4-H Forest Ecology Contest List: There are a few other trees on our list that also have simple, alternate leaves with pinnate venation and serrate margins. |
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