General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also butterfly gardens.
Availability:
Grown by enthusiasts.
Description: Medium shrubby wildflower with an erect stem.
Dimensions: About 4-6 feet in height. Individual stems taller than broad, but spreading from underground stems (rhizomes) and forming small patches broader than tall.
Growth Rate: Fast.
Range:
Monroe, Miami-Dade and Collier counties; West Indies, Mexico and Central America. Very rare in the upper Monroe County Keys and either very rare or absent in the middle Keys.
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: Marshes.
Soils: Moist to seasonally wet, well-drained limestone soils, withour 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: High; can tolerate moderate amounts of salt wind without significant injury.
Drought Tolerance: Low; requires moist to wet soils and is intolerant of long periods of drought.
Light Requirements: Full sun.
Flower Color: White with yellow anthers.
Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy.
Flowering Season: All year.
Fruit: Red globose berry.
Wildlife and Ecology: Nectar plant for mangrove skipper (Phocides pigmalion) and other butterflies.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed and division.
Comments: It is listed as threatened by the state of Florida.
