General Landscape Uses:
Thorny barriers. This can be very aggressive and is not recommended for general landscape use.
Ecological Restoration Notes: This is a common element of coastal strand and the edges of maritime hammocks, but more often than not it needs to be controlled at disturbed sites undergoing restoration.
Availability:
Rarely grown by native plant nurseries.
Description: A clambering vine with spiny stems and prickly leaves.
Dimensions: N/A; a clambering vine with stems to 25 feet.
Growth Rate: Fast to moderate.
Range:
Monroe County Keys north along the coasts to Volusia and Levy counties; West Indies, Mexico, Central America, South America, Old World.
Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Map of Postal Code Areas of IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Habitats: Coastal uplands.
Soils: Moist sands or limestone to occasionally inundated brackish soils, with or without a humusy top layer.
Nutritional Requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils.
Salt Water Tolerance: Moderate; tolerates brackish water or occasional inundation by salt water.
Salt Wind Tolerance: Secondary line; tolerates significant salt wind without injury, but usually is somewhat protected.
Drought Tolerance: High; does not require any supplemental water once established.
Light Requirements: Full sun.
Flower Color: Yellowish-brown.
Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy compund racemes; the flowers are fragrant.
Flowering Season: All year; peak spring-summer.
Fruit: Reddish-brown prickly pod (legume) containing gray seeds.
Wildlife and Ecology: Larval host plant for Miami blue (
Cyclargus thomasi bethunebakeri) and nickerbean blue (
Hemiargus ammon) butterflies.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.
Comments: See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's
Flower Friday page.
