General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also wildflower and rock gardens.
Ecological Restoration Notes: It can be used as one of many understory herbs in pine rocklands. It seems to prefer weedy conditions and will spread from seed in pine rockland creations.
Availability:
Grown by enthusiasts.
Description: Small herbaceous wildflower.
Dimensions: About 1-3 inches in height. Spreading and forming large, open patches.
Growth Rate: Fast.
Range:
Endemic to Florida from the Monroe County Keys north to Alachua and Levy counties. In South Florida, very rare outside of Monroe and Miami-Dade counties; perhaps never present or extirpated in Broward County; in Palm Beach County, known only from the Juno Dunes area; apparently absent elsewhere. Also very rare or absent in the upper and middle Florida Keys.
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: Pinelands and open disturbed sites.
Soils: Moist, well-drained limestone or sandy soils, without humus.
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: Full sun.
Flower Color: Pink.
Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy.
Flowering Season: All year.
Fruit: Small pod (legume).
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.
Comments: Spreads from seed in the garden and prefers open, disturbed areas, but is not really weedy.
