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| Gopher apple produces clusters of blossoms at the tips of its stems from spring into early summer. To take a closer look, click here to download a large version of this image. |
Description
Technically a shrub, gopher apple looks more like a bunch of oak seedlings or some kind of weird leather-fern ground cover. It grows with an extensive maze of underground stems that send up slender woody shoots with evergreen oaklike leaves. The leaves are stiff, simple, alternate, elliptic, and about 2-4 in (5-10 cm) long and 1 in (2.5 cm) wide. The leaves rise only about a foot (30 cm) or so above ground, but a single clonal plant can easily spread its subterranean stems and branches over more than 100 square feet (30 m). The flowers don't look anything like oak catkins. They are small, yellowish, and clustered in 4 in (10 cm) triangular shaped terminal cymes that stand a little above the leaves. The fruits are green at first, turning dirty white when ripe, and about an inch (2-3 cm) long. Ripe fruits are edible and soft, and taste to me like the old fashioned pink bubblegum that used to come with baseball cards.
Location
Licania michauxii grows wild in dry pinelands, sandy roadsides, and coastal dunes on the southeastern coastal plain from South Carolina to Florida and west to Louisiana. Often found growing with turkey oak ( Quercus laevis ) and longleaf pine ( Pinus palustris ), a stand of gopher apple looks like a patch of oak seedlings until you see the flowers or the fruits.
Culture
Gopher apple is a tough one: It is tolerant of drought, wind, salt spray, poor sandy soils, frost, and intense full sun.
Light: Gopher apple always seems to be growing in full to nearly full sun.
Moisture: Gopher apple grows naturally in dry sandy soils and is quite tolerant of drought conditions.
Hardiness: USDA Zones 8-11.
Propagation: Propagation of gopher apple apparently is difficult.
Author: Steve Christman
Copyright 1996 - 2009
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