General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations.
Ecological Restoration Notes: It can be used as one of many understory herbs in pine rocklands.
Availability:
Grown by enthusiasts.
Description: Small herb.
Dimensions: About 4-8 inches in height. Spreading from underground stems (rhizomes) and forming small, open patches much broader than tall.
Growth Rate: Fast.
Range:
Endemic to the Monroe County Keys and Miami-Dade County. In the Monroe County Keys, apparently disjunct from Miami-Dade County to the pine rocklands of Big Pine Key and nearby islands; also reported for Key Largo, but perhaps introduced there.
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.
Soils: Moist, well-drained limestone 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: Yellowish-green.
Flower Characteristics: Inconspicuous.
Flowering Season: All year.
Fruit: inconspicuous, 3-lobed capsule.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.
