I have seen this as well: Illicium parviflorum - Japanese Anise; I wonder (since we are in a similar area) if those labels are coming from the same nursery? I finally decided that they got the scientific name but the common name wrong.

What is the difference between parviflorum and floridanum?

Floridanum has a red flower and prefers shade. Parviflorum has a white flower and can handle some sun. Those are the major differences that I know of.

Thank you, that is the conclusion that I had tentatively reached, the common name being wrong. I'm going to plant them. The Illicium parviflorum was grown at McCorkle Nurseries in Dearing, GA.

Tomorrow the plan is to go to the GNC Native Plant Sales and hopefully they will have the floridanum which I wanted elsewhere instead of going back to the first nursery. I'm hoping GPC has a lot of things I am looking for - I'd rather buy as much as I can from them and give them my money.

Illicium parviflorum will usually have dark green foliage, if grown in full shade. If grown in partial to full sun exposure the foliage will be yellow-green to yellow. Under deciduous trees, the winter sunlight will turn the foliage yellow-green.
The yellow-green flowers are tiny, ½-¾" dia.(1-2cm), less than half the size of Illicium floridanum (2" or 5 cm).

There is a white-flowering form of Illicium floridanum, sometimes listed as a cultivar, 'Alba', but more correctly as, forma alba, since it does occur in wild populations.
Curious thing about the forma alba, when the seed pods explode, the seed is usually propelled further from the mother plant than occurs on the maroon/red-flowerd ones?

When you go to George's plant sale at the GPC Native Plant Botanical Garden, look for some rare, unusual & endangered species plants, that you can't usually find anywhere else. If you are interested in that sort of thing!
Rb

GPC has great stuff! Tell us what you get later.

razorback33 - thanks for the tip on the leaf color. These are for a wildlife hedgerow and intended to provide some of the evergreen factor, the flowers aren't important (except to invite bees I hope). Still, I prefer the darker green so will move them further down my hedgerow into more shade than I have them in.

I have been trying not to buy a lot so I can purchase more at the GPC and local native sales - yes, I am very interested in endangered plants, hope my truck is big enough. Otherwise I'll be madly ordering online to meet spring deadlines.

Hey, thanks for the clarification you guys gave me. I was able to pick up two floridanum at the GPC sale, and planted a row of the floridanum alternating with two parviflorum as part of my mixed hedgerow. It provides some coverage for the birds, which is a goal (and privacy from a neighbor), and I am really liking the look a lot. I would not have done it that way without asking here first, and would not have liked the results as much.

AND my beau likes it. He was horrified when I cut down all the Chinese privet (a of of it) and opened up the view to the neighbors. Their hot tub no less. Poor beau, feel sorry for this man putting up with me. He likes the Anise better than privet.

The GPC sale was great. I packed an suv with shrubs, all of them ones I was specifically looking for. Life is good.

Glad to hear you got what you wanted. Illicium is my temperature indicator plant - if the temps drop below 32, it will droop. Once they come back above 32, the plant returns to normal. Since our temps are predicated to fall below 32 in the next couple of days, I just want to point this out.