Florida Torreya is a needled evergreen conifer in the yew family native to riparian areas Georgia and Florida. The tree is dioecious (male and female cones on separate trees) and grows 30-50 feet tall and wide. It prefers part shade to shade in constantly moist well-drained soils and can be used as an ornamental or specimen tree. It performs well in the high humidity of the south but it is difficult to find this tree in the nursery industry. The Biltmore Estate in NC has been successfully growing disease-free trees. See other native trees that are less problematic to the left. Insects, Diseases, and Other Plant Problems: Scale is an insect problem. Fungal blight, mushroom root rot, leaf spot, and needle necrosis are devastating natural populations of this plant putting it on endangered species lists. More information on Torreya .
Curated pairwise relationships between this plant and others in the library — who feeds
whom, who competes, who confuses the pests. Green reads as a good pairing, red as one to avoid.
No curated interactions recorded for this species yet.
Also noted by NC State
Related species the NC State Plant Toolbox flags for this plant — look-alikes to tell
apart, and plants that play a similar role in a planting. Ones we carry in the library are linked.
Deep shade (Less than 2 hours to no direct sunlight) | Partial Shade (Direct sunlight only part of the day, 2-6 hours)
Soil texture
Clay; High Organic Matter; Loam (Silt)
Soil drainage
Good Drainage | Moist
Available space
24-60 feet
NC region
Mountains; Piedmont
Mature size
Height: 30 ft. 0 in. - 50 ft. 0 in. | Width: 30 ft. 0 in. - 50 ft. 0 in.
Maintenance
High
Canopy layer
1 - Canopy (>40 ft)
Form & Appearance
Habit / form
Pyramidal
Foliage
Needled Evergreen
Leaf color
Blue; Green
Leaf type
Needles
Leaf arrangement
Alternate
Leaf shape
Linear
Leaf margin
Entire
Leaf feel
Glossy
Leaf size
1-3 inches long, < 1 inch wide
Hairs present
No
Leaf detail
Bright green, stiff, sharp-tipped, glossy, linear needles 1½ to 2 inches long and 1/8 inch wide, have an unpleasant fragrance when crushed. Two bluish-white stomatal bands run on the bottom side of the leaves.
Flower detail
Non-flowering
Fruit color
Green; Purple/Lavender
Fruit size
1-3 inches long, < 1 inch wide
Fruit detail
Male cones appear in the axils of the needles of the prior year. Female cones appear in the axils of the needles of the current year and take 18 months to ripen. A fleshy drupe-like cone is up to 1.3 inches long and surrounds a single seed. Fruits are striped with purple and the seed matures to reddish-brown. Squirrels help disperse the seeds.
Bark color
Dark Brown; Orange
Bark detail
Mature bark is thick and irregularly divided by shallow fissures. The dark-brown outer bark often is tinged with orange while the inner bark is yellow.
Stem color
Gray/Silver; Green
Stem detail
Stiff green twigs. 2-year old branches gray. Stems emit a foul odor when crushed.