Index / Search / Guaiacum sanctum
§1 Plant
Guaiacum sanctum L.
vernacular holywood — species · Zygophyllaceae
§2Habit & range
Habit and range
- Growth habit
- Shrub, Tree
- Duration
- Perennial
- Group
- Dicot
- Family
- Zygophyllaceae R. Br.
- Genus
- Guaiacum
§2a
Native status, by region
- L48 Lower 48 States Native
- PR Puerto Rico Native
§2b
County-level range
· 2 counties across 1 state§3Cultivation specs · USDA
Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.
§3a
Tolerances
- Drought
- Medium
- Fire
- Medium
- Anaerobic
- Low
- CaCO₃
- Medium
- Hedging
- Low
§3b
Climate & soil
- Cold tolerance
- 36 °F minimum
- Frost-free days
- 365 min.
- Precipitation
- 34–60 in/yr
- pH range
- 6–8.5
- Root depth
- 36 in min.
- Fertility need
- Medium
- Soil texture
- coarse, fine
§3c
Form & growth
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Mature height
- 30 ft
- Height @ 20 y
- 15 ft
- Foliage texture
- Medium
- Foliage colour
- Green
- Porosity (summer)
- Dense
- Porosity (winter)
- Dense
- Flower colour
- Blue
- Fruit colour
- Yellow
- Fire resistant
- No
- N fixation
- None
§3d
Reproduction
- Bloom period
- Spring
- Seed begins
- Spring
- Seed ends
- Fall
- Stratify
- No
- Seeds / lb
- 44,000
- Propagation
- seed
§3e
Use & availability
- Nursery stock
- No
- Browse palatability
- Low
- Graze palatability
- Low
- Palatable, human
- No
- Lumber
- Yes
- Christmas tree
- No
§4Counties, by state
Recorded in 2 counties across 1 state.
Florida view state ↗ 2 N ▾
§5Sources & provenance
USDA PLANTS
Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.
plants.usda.gov/GUSA ↗GBIF Backbone
Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.
gbif.org/species/3189908 ↗Record version
Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:
usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26
fetched 2026-05-26T10:50:45Z