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, fine-textured herbaceous grass.
Dimensions: About 12-24 inches in height. Taller than broad.
Growth Rate: Fast.
Range:
Monroe County Keys north to Miami-Dade and Collier counties; West Indies. Naturalizing on limerock fill to the north of its native range.
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: 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: Brown inflorescence.
Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy inflorescence.
Flowering Season: Summer-fall.
Fruit: Inconspicuous caryopsis.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed and division.
References: Miami-Dade County Landscape Manual
(2005).
