Common name: American fringetree

Botanical name: Chionanthus virginicus

What it is: A small native tree (or multi-stemmed large bush, depending on how you prune it) that gets very unusual shaggy white flowers in late May through early June. Nicknamed “old man’s beard” for the interesting flowers. Leaves turn yellow in fall.

Size: 15 to 20 feet tall and wide but is a slow grower.

Where to use: Makes a great front-yard specimen or centered out any oft-used window – especially when pruned as a single-trunk tree. Grows in sun or part shade and tolerates fairly damp soil.

Why I like it: It’s surprising how many people have never seen or heard of this beautiful and unusual small tree despite the fact that it’s a U.S. native species. The main attraction is when the tree blooms in late spring. The flowers hang out and down in white, skinny strands, which I’m sure was the inspiration for both the common and nicknames. (Beats me what Chionanthus means.)

The fall foliage is a decent yellow, although not up there with the maples, ginkgos, parrotias and other best-of-the-fall yellow-turners. I haven’t seen any bugs or disease on my fringetree, but by far the No. 1 growing challenge is pruning it to shape in the early going. If you’re OK with a somewhat unwieldy, large, multi-stemmed fringetree, just walk away. But if you want more of a single-stem specimen, you’re going to have to do some cutting and training in the early years. Do that and just a bit of maintenance pruning thereafter and you’ll have a real beauty that everyone will ask, “Wow, what IS that tree?”