Description: Small tree to 15 m (50 ft) tall and 30 cm (1 ft) in diameter. Twigs slender, gray or rusty-hairy, often ending in a spine. Leaves 3-7 cm (1.2-2.8 in) long and 1-3 cm (0.4-1.2 in) wide, alternate but mostly clustered on short spur shoots, rounded, widest above the middle and tapering to the base, shiny-glabrous above and rusty-hairy below. Flowers small, clustered, white, blooming in early summer. Fruits elliptical, about 10 mm (0.4 in) long, purple or black, ripening in the fall.
Distribution: The species is native to the southern U. S. from the Gulf coast west to Arizona and north to Kansas.
Habitat: upland and floodplain forests, prairie margins.
NWI status: FACU
Comment: Sideroxylon refers to some property of the wood; lanuginosum refers to the wooly hairs on the under surface of the leaves.
Distribution in Oklahoma: 
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Last update: 9/20/99
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