General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations.
Ecological Restoration Notes: Ephemeral in open areas of beach dune and coastal strand along the east coast.
Availability:
Grown by one or two native plant nurseries in South Florida.
Description: Small creeping annual herbaceous wildflower.
Dimensions: About 2-6 inches in height. Spreading and forming rather large, open patches.
Growth Rate: Fast.
Range:
Miami-Dade County north along the east coast to St. Lucie County, but perhaps not extant north of Palm Beach County; southern Mexico.
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: Beach dunes and open disturbed sites along the coast.
Soils: Moist, well-drained 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: Pioneer; grows in unconsolidated substrate in direct salt wind and spray.
Drought Tolerance: High; does not require any supplemental water once established.
Light Requirements: Full sun.
Flower Color: Purple.
Flower Characteristics: Showy. Dimorphic; showy flowers are purple and infertile.
Flowering Season: Spring-fall; peak in summer.
Fruit: Brown peanut-like fruit form and mature underground. Fall.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.
Comments: A very ephemeral annual that prefers newly disturbed sand. It is listed as endangered by the state of Florida. See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's
Flower Friday page and a 2022 post on the
Treasure Coast Natives blog about the interesting pollination and reproduction of Beach-peanut.
