Anacua
Ehretia anacua
Anacua is the great shade tree of South Texas, dense-crowned and nearly evergreen, with leaves so abrasive it is also called sandpaper tree. It smothers itself in fragrant white bloom after spring rain, sometimes twice in a season, then sets orange-yellow fruit that draws birds in numbers. Long-lived, deep-rooted and tolerant of the region's alkaline caliche.
- Family
- Ehretiaceae
- Type
- tree
- Lifespan
- perennial
- Height
- 20–45 ft
- Spacing
- 20–35 ft apart
- Light
- sun, part shade
- Soil moisture
- dry, moist
- Soil pH
- alkaline
- Bloom
- February, March, April
- Bloom colors
- white
- Wildlife value
- songbirds, larval host, pollinators
- Landscape uses
- specimen, naturalizing, hedge or screen
- Native states
- TX