White leadtree is native to northern Central America and southern Mexico. It has
become naturalized throughout the tropics. It is considered one of the 100 worst
invasive species, growing in dense thickets that crowd everything else out.
Don’t even think about planting these! They prefer riparian
zones (areas around rivers), but also thrive in roadsides, open woods, gardens,
disturbed habitats, and coastal areas.
Plants: Shrubs or small trees, 6½-33′ (2-10 m) high.
Young stems are green and densely covered in fine grayish hairs. Older stems are smooth,
gray or gray-brown, with multiple raise lenticles.
Leaves: bipinnate, up to 10″ (25 cm) long.
Each leaf has about 12 pairs of opposite, lanceolate leaflets ¼-⅜″ (9-12 mm) ×
1/16-⅛″ (2-3.5 mm).
Flowers: Resembling fuzzy balls ¾″ (1.9 cm) in diameter,
flowers are white, aging to yellow and brown.
Fruits: Seed pods are dark brown, nearly flat,
3-9″ (8-23 cm) long × ⅜-¾″ (1-2 cm) wide, each containing about 20 seeds.
Each seed is glossy brown, oval, flat, and ⅛″ (6 mm) long.