General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also wildflower gardens.
Ecological Restoration Notes: It can be used as one of many understory herbs in pine rocklands.
Availability:
Grown by enthusiasts and occasionally by native plant nurseries.
Description: Small herbaceous wildflower.
Dimensions: Bout 6-12 inches in height. Spreading and forming small open patches 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 the pine rocklands of Big Pine Key.
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: Dark blue with 2 parallel white stripes.
Flower Characteristics: Showy, 5/8" long and 1/2" wide.
Flowering Season: All year.
Fruit: Inconspicuous nutlet.
Wildlife and Ecology: Valuable source of seeds for birds.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed and division.
References: Hammer 2004
Comments: It is listed as endangered by the state of Florida.
