Natives For Your Neighborhood
Conservation of rare plants, animals, and ecosystems

General Landscape Uses: Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also butterfly gardens.

Ecological Restoration Notes: It can be used as one of many understory herbs in pine rocklands.

Availability: Grown by enthusiasts.

Description: Small to medium herbaceous grass.

Dimensions: About 4-6 inches tall; to 12 inches or more when in flower. Spreading and usually broader than tall.

Growth Rate: Fast.

Range: Monroe County Keys and Miami-Dade County and north along the west coast to Citrus and Sumpter counties; West Indies, Mexico and Central America.

 Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.

 Map of suggested ZIP codes from South Florida north to southern Brevard, Osceola, Polk, and Pasco counties.

 Map of ZIP codes with habitat recommendations from the Monroe County Keys north to Martin and Charlotte counties.

Habitats: Hammocks, pinelands and coastal uplands.

Soils: Moist, well-drained limestone soils, with or without humusy top layer.

Nutritional Requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils.

Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate long-term flooding by salt or brackish water.

Salt Wind Tolerance: Low; salt wind may burn the leaves.

Drought Tolerance: High; does not require any supplemental water once established.

Light Requirements: Light shade to full sun.

Flower Color: Green.

Flower Characteristics: Inconspicuous.

Flowering Season: Summer-fall.

Fruit: Inconspicuous caryopsis.

Wildlife and Ecology: Larval host plant for southern broken-dash (Wallengrenia otho) butterflies.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.

References: Miami-Dade County Landscape Manual (2005).

Comments: Can be a little weedy, but useful to fill in open spaces pine rocklands while other species are becoming established.