General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also wildflower gardens.
Ecological Restoration Notes: A fairly uncommon understory herb in a variety of mesic and wetland ecosytems, but occasionally becoming abundant in small areas.
Availability:
Rarely grown by native plant nurseries.
Description: Medium herbaceous wildflower with grass-like leaves.
Dimensions: Typically 1-2 feet in height; up to 5 feet when in flower. Generally taller than broad.
Growth Rate: Slow.
Range:
Monroe County Keys north to Palm Beach and Lee counties; disjunct in Polk County; West Indies, Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. In the Monroe County Keys, disjunct from Miami-Dade County to the pine rocklands of Big Pine Key and nearby islands. Not documented on barrier islands in South Florida, but possibly historically present; it grows well at
Pan’s Garden in Palm Beach.
Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Map of Postal Code Areas of IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Habitats: Pinelands, marshes and swamps.
Soils: Moist to seasonally wet, well-drained to poorly-drained sandy, limestone, or organic soils; also found on stumps and floating logs in swamps.
Nutritional Requirements: Moderate; can grow in nutrient poor soils, but needs some organic content to thrive.
Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate flooding by salt or brackish water.
Salt Wind Tolerance: Moderate; grows near salt water, but is protected from direct salt spray by other vegetation.
Drought Tolerance: Moderate to low; requires moist to wet soils, but tolerant of short periods of drought once established.
Light Requirements: Full sun to light shade.
Flower Color: Pale pink to bright rose-pink, with yellow on the lateral sepals and lip.
Flower Characteristics: Showy, 1/2-3/4" wide.
Flowering Season: Winter-summer; peak in spring.
Fruit: Green capsule with dust-like seeds.
Wildlife and Ecology: In Florida, all plants are self-pollinating. In the West Indies, the flowers are pollinated by bees that do not occur in South Florida.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from division and seed.
Comments: It is listed as threatened by the state of Florida. See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's
Flower Friday page.
