General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations.
Availability:
Grown by enthusiasts.
Description: Small herbaceous wildflower.
Dimensions: About 1-2 inches in height; to 6 inches when in flower. Taller than broad when in flower.
Growth Rate: Moderate.
Range:
Eastern United States west to Texas and Oklahoma and south to the Monroe County Keys; northern Bahamas. In the Monroe County Keys, disjunct from Miami-Dade County to the pine rocklands of Big Pine Key. Rare or absent in Miami-Dade County outside of Everglades National Park. Perhaps extirpated in Broward County where last collected near Margate in 1963.
Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Map of ZIP codes with habitat recommendations from the Monroe County Keys north to Martin and Charlotte counties.
Habitats: Pinelands and prairies.
Soils: Seasonally wet, well-drained to moderately well-drained sandy or limestone soils, without humus.
Nutritional Requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils.
Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate flooding by salt or brackish water.
Salt Wind Tolerance: Low; salt wind may burn the leaves.
Drought Tolerance: Low; requires moist to wet soils and is intolerant of long periods of drought.
Light Requirements: Full sun.
Flower Color: Blue to violet, pink, yellow or white.
Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy, 3/8-1/2" wide.
Flowering Season: Winter-spring.
Fruit: Inconspicuous capsule.
Wildlife and Ecology: This is a carnivorous species, which traps small insects on its leaves.
References: Hammer 2004
Comments: See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's
Flower Friday page.
