Lancewood

Lancewood (Ocotea coriacea) is now flowering copiously at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area.  This tropical, straight-trunked tree is uncommon in Indian River County, and at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area is only found growing in the hammock loop trail area near the parking.   A well-shaped specimen festooned with white flowers is visible from Oslo Road just to the west of the parking lot entrance.

Though tropical in origin, the lancewood at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area was undamaged by our recent cold winter temperatures.  In the Christmas freeze of 1989 when temperatures dropped below twenty degrees, the lancewood died back to ground.  These erect trees fared well in the sister hurricanes of 2004, except when other trees fell atop them.

Unpruned and undamaged by tree fall, the lancewood tree maintains a pyramidal shape with an straight central leader, which gives rise to its common name, lancewood.  Its species name, coriacea, references its leathery leaves.  Its common name is of French origin, as members of this genus are found in French New Guinea.

Its aromatic, glossy dark green leaves are lanceolate, long with pointed tips, and the leaf midrib is yellow in color.  Its leaves are aromatic when crushed, as are the leaves of the related, exotic plant laurel nobilis from which bay leaves are harvested.  These pungent compounds likely discourage some herbivore, yet this plant is a larval food source for the palamedes swallowtail butterfly.  Almost all birds feed their young sofr-bodied insects like butterfly caterpillars.

When full of delicate, tiny white flowers, lancewood attracts many insect pollinators.  Over the summer, single-seeded fruits form and progress from green to purple-black when ripe.   In the fall, birds find these olive-shaped fruit to be irresistible.  The fruits are held in a distinctive, yellow enlarged “cup”, or cupule.

In nature, the lancewood is a maritime hammock pioneer that grows in sunny, open areas, but, unfortunately, rarely is used in an ornamental landscapes.  Lancewood establishes best in full sun and, once established, is quite drought-tolerant.  Lancewood also thrives in moist but well-drained soils.  With its shapely form, copious white flowers, and bird-attracting fruits, lancewood deserves a place in our ornamental landscapes.