Monticello Gardens

Common name: Fringe Tree

Family: Oleaceae (Olive)

Distribution: Eastern United States

Hardiness: USDA Zone 3

Life form: Deciduous tree

Comments: Henry Compton, Lord Bishop of London, appointed cleric and naturalist, John Bannister (1650-1692), to explore the flora of the Virginia colony in 1678. Among the many North American natives described by Bannister was the Fringe Tree (Chionanthus virginicus) or Old Man's Beard. In 1786, Thomas Jefferson, then living in France, wrote Philadelphia botanist John Bartram, Jr. for seeds of this showy, spring-flowering tree to share with his Parisian friends. Jefferson’s granddaughter, Cornelia Randolph, praised the Fringe Tree in a letter to her sister, Ellen, dated November 12, 1826: “nothing can be more beautiful than one particular plant that we have growing in our meadow here… [that] dips its long pendant graceful branches covered with fringe like flowers into the branch below.” Birds enjoy the fruits in late summer.