General Landscape Uses:
Accent shrub.
Availability:
Grown by one or two native plant nurseries in South Florida.
Description: Medium to large shrub or rarely a small tree with wide-spreading branches. Trunks usually very short. Bark gray. Leaves shiny, light green above, about 1 inch long.
Dimensions: Typically about 3-6 feet in height, but sometimes more, and sometimes staying prostrate and forming spreading mats. Almost always broader than tall.
Growth Rate: Moderate.
Range:
Monroe County Keys and Miami-Dade County; West Indies. In the Monroe County Keys, disjunct from Miami-Dade County to Big Pine Key and nearby islands; apparently never collected on the island of Key West. For a digitized image of Elbert Little's Florida range map, visit the
Exploring Florida website.
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: Pine rocklands and rockland hammocks.
Soils: Moist, well-drained limestone soils, with or without humusy top layer.
Nutritional Requirements: Moderate to low; it prefers soils with organic content, but will still grow reasonably well 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: Moderate to high; plants growing in extremely dry soils may die during extended periods of drought.
Light Requirements: Full sun to light shade.
Flower Color: White to pink.
Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy.
Flowering Season: All year.
Fruit: Round black berry.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from de-pulped seed.
References: A Gardner's Guide to Florida's Native Plants
Comments: It is listed as threatened by the state of Florida. See also Florida Natural Areas Inventory's
Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Florida page (Chafin 2000).
