Natives For Your Neighborhood
Conservation of rare plants, animals, and ecosystems

General Landscape Uses: Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also wildflower gardens.

Availability: Grown by enthusiasts and occasionally by native plant nurseries.

Description: Small herbaceous wildflower.

Dimensions: About 4-8 inches in height. Usually taller than broad, but sometimes falling over and forming small patches.

Growth Rate: Fast.

Range: Southern United States south to the Monroe County Keys; West Indies. In the Monroe County Keys, apparently disjunct from Miami-Dade County to the pine rocklands of Big Pine Key; also collected once on 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: Pinelands, prairies and marshes.

Soils: Moist to seasonally wet, well- 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 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: Yellow.

Flower Characteristics: Showy, about 3/4" wide.

Flowering Season: All year; peak spring-fall.

Fruit: Inconspicuous, globose 3-valved capsule containing light brown to gray pitted seeds.

Wildlife and Ecology: Larval host for Gulf fritillary butterflies. For an excellent article on uses by Gulf fritillary butterflies and other insects see this article by Rufino Osorio in The Palmetto.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.

References: Hammer 2004

Comments: See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's Flower Friday page.