General Landscape Uses:
Spiny barrier plantings along the coast.
Availability:
Grown by one or two native plant nurseries in South Florida.
Description: Small tree or large shrub with a rounded crown. Trunks short, to 8 inches in diameter, bearing many irregular branches. Branches armed with 1 inch long thorns. Bark blackish, deeply furrrowed and broken into small regular squares. Leaves generally less than 1 inch long, in dense clusters, bluish or dull green above.
Dimensions: Typically 10-15 feet in height; to 29 feet in South Florida. Often as broad as tall.
Growth Rate: Moderate.
Range:
Monroe County Keys north to Brevard and Levy counties; Bahamas and Cuba. For a digitized image of Elbert Little's Florida range map, visit the
Exploring Florida website.
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: Coastal berms and margins of tidal swamps and marshes.
Soils: Moist to periodically wet, moderately well-drained to poorly-drained brackish soils, with humusy top layer.
Nutritional Requirements: Moderate; can grow in nutrient poor soils, but needs some organic content to thrive.
Salt Water Tolerance: Moderate; tolerates brackish water or occasional inundation by salt water.
Salt Wind Tolerance: Moderate; grows near salt water, but is protected from direct salt spray by other vegetation.
Drought Tolerance: Moderate; generally requires moist soils, but tolerant of short periods of drought once established.
Light Requirements: Light shade.
Flower Color: Creamy-white.
Flower Characteristics: Inconspicuous.
Flowering Season: All year.
Fruit: Black berry. Edible and sweet.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.
