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 in the upper Florida Keys.

Availability: Grown by enthusiasts and occasionally by native plant nurseries.

Description: High climbing vine with tendrils.

Dimensions: N/A; a vine with stems to 10 feet or more in length.

Growth Rate: Moderate.

Range: Monroe County Keys and Miami-Dade County; West Indies and Central America. In the Monroe County Keys, and apparently absent south of Lignumvitae Key. In Miami-Dade County, native only to the Florida Keys in and around Elliott Key in Biscayne National Park.

 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: Rockland hammocks.

Soils: Moist, well-drained limestone soils, with humusy top layer.

Nutritional Requirements: Moderate; can grow in nutrient poor soils, but needs some organic content to thrive.

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: Moderate; generally requires moist soils, but tolerant of short periods of drought once established.

Light Requirements: Light shade to full sun.

Flower Color: Calyx green, corolla and corona white.

Flower Characteristics: Inconspicuous.

Flowering Season: Summer-fall.

Fruit: Dark blue capsular berry.

Wildlife and Ecology: Larval host plant for julia (Dryas iulia) and probably other butterflies.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.

Comments: It is listed as endangered by the state of Florida. See also Florida Natural Areas Inventory's Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Florida page (Chafin 2000).