holywood
Guaiacum sanctum · Zygophyllaceae
holywood (Guaiacum sanctum) is a perennial shrub in the Zygophyllaceae family. It is native to North America. USDA records it as hardy in zone 10 and warmer, down to about 36°F.
At a glance
| Type | shrub USDA |
|---|---|
| Lifecycle | perennial USDA |
| Native status | native USDA |
| Mature height | 30 ft USDA |
| Growth rate | slow USDA |
| Soil pH | 6–8.5 USDA |
| Bloom | March–May USDA |
| Flower color | Blue USDA |
| Hardiness zones | 10 and warmer USDA |
| Guild layer | shrub Derived |
USDA quoted from the USDA PLANTS database · Derived computed by a fixed rule from those columns. No value on this page is estimated.
Growing conditions
It is recorded on soils from pH 6 to 8.5 — a broad range that spans acidic through mildly alkaline ground. Its cold limit is zone 10; USDA publishes no warm-end limit, so gardeners in warmer zones should check local heat tolerance separately.
Size and growth
At maturity it reaches about 30 ft, making it a substantial woody plant. It grows slowly, which matters when you are timing a planting around the layers above it.
Bloom period
USDA records a bloom period of March through May. The flower color USDA records is blue. Bloom timing is how the Guild Builder overlaps flowering across a planting so something is in flower for as much of the season as possible.
Bloom period is a claim about when this plant flowers. It is deliberately not a pollinator rating — no dataset we trust publishes one, so we do not make that claim. See Data & sources.
Role in a guild
Shrub layer. In a layered planting this is woody mid-level structure between the understory and the ground. We derive the layer from the plant's growth habit and mature height using a fixed rule, so the same inputs always produce the same layer.
Tags
Related plants
Others in Guaiacum
- lignum-vitae Guaiacum officinale
Similar role and hardiness
- Antilles calophyllum Calophyllum antillanum
- tiplant Cordyline fruticosa
- Indian mulberry Morinda citrifolia
- Hawai'i hawthorn Osteomeles anthyllidifolia
Where this data comes from
Every value on this page comes from the USDA PLANTS database record for symbol GUSA, or is computed from those values by a fixed rule. Nothing here is estimated or model-generated. Where USDA publishes no value, this page omits the claim rather than filling the gap.
bloom_end— quoted from USDA PLANTSbloom_start— quoted from USDA PLANTSduration— quoted from USDA PLANTSflower_color— quoted from USDA PLANTSgrowth_habit— quoted from USDA PLANTSgrowth_rate— quoted from USDA PLANTSguild_role— derived by rule from USDA columnsmature_height_ft— quoted from USDA PLANTSnative_status— quoted from USDA PLANTSnitrogen_fixer— quoted from USDA PLANTSph_max— quoted from USDA PLANTSph_min— quoted from USDA PLANTStemperature_min_f— quoted from USDA PLANTSzone_min— quoted from USDA PLANTS
Read our full data sources and methodology.
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