Halesia macgregorii Seeds | Silver Bell

Hanging white bell flowers of Chinese silverbell against fresh spring leaves — Silver Bell (*Halesia macgregorii*): Styracaceae, hills of south-eastern China.

LATIN NAME: Halesia macgregorii

COMMON NAME: Silver Bell

Plant Profile

Halesia macgregorii is the Chinese silverbell, a slender deciduous tree of fifteen to twenty metres with a clean grey trunk and hanging clusters of white, bell-shaped flowers in early spring. The flowers open with the leaves, hang on long stalks, and give the tree its whole ornamental case. The fruit that follows is dry and two-winged, not four-winged as in the American species, and that small difference is the readiest way to tell them apart. It is a tree of the warm hill forests of the south-east, and it is far rarer in cultivation than its American cousin. The bark is smooth and grey, and it does not peel.

Science & Biotechnology

The Chinese silverbell is much less known than Halesia carolina, and its taxonomic position has been reviewed more than once, with some authors placing it in a separate genus on the strength of its two-winged fruit and its chromosome number. It is a narrow endemic of the hills of south-eastern China, and wild populations are fragmented, which makes it a conservation concern as much as a garden plant. Seed set in cultivation is often poor, and the species is maintained largely by grafting and by cuttings. Its wood anatomy and pollen have been described as part of work on the disjunction between the eastern Asian and eastern North American floras. Its flowers are pollinated by bees, and the fruit is dispersed by wind, which is unusual in a genus whose American species rely on gravity and water.

Uses & Benefits

In the garden it is a spring-flowering specimen tree, best placed where the hanging bells can be seen against a dark background, and it is one of the few small trees that flowers well in light shade. The wood is light and soft and has no commercial value. Its real conservation value is as a gene pool: the genus has a classic disjunction between eastern Asia and eastern North America, and this species is the Asian half of that pattern. It is a plant for collections, and its rarity is part of the reason to grow it. It is also grown in a few arboreta as part of collections of the Styracaceae, where its early flowers are valued for the greenhouse and the cool conservatory.

Growing from Seed

The seed has a hard coat and an immature embryo, so it needs both warmth and cold: stratify in damp sand at twenty degrees for eight weeks, then at two to five degrees for twelve, and sow in spring. Germination is sparse and can continue into a second year. Grow the seedling in light shade and humus-rich, lime-free soil, and plant out young, because the roots are fine and resent disturbance. Water in dry spells, mulch with leaf mould, and protect the young stem from late frost, which can spoil the first flowers. Mulch with leaf mould rather than manure. Keep the pot cool and shaded through its first summer.

Our Take

A rare silverbell with two wings instead of four, worth growing for its spring bells and its place in a classic disjunction. It is a collector’s tree, and it behaves like one.

Tree Seeds