Natives For Your Neighborhood
Conservation of rare plants, animals, and ecosystems

General Landscape Uses: Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also moist to wet wildflower and butterfly gardens.

Availability: Commonly available at native plant nurseries in central Florida. Available at native plant nurseries in northeast Florida.

Description: Medium herbaceous wildflower.

Dimensions: Typically 1-2 feet in height. Usually taller than broad, but sometimes falling over and forming small patches.

Growth Rate: Fast.

Range: Eastern and southern United States west to Texas and south to Miami-Dade County and the Monroe County mainland; Cuba. Naturalized in New York and Ontario.

 Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.

 Map of Postal Code Areas of IRC data from peninsular Florida.

Habitats: Marshes and swamps.

Soils: Moist to wet, moderately well-drained to poorly-drained sandy, calcareous or organic soils, with or without humusy top layer.

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: Low; salt wind may burn the leaves.

Drought Tolerance: Moderate to low; requires moist to wet soils, but tolerant of short periods of drought once established.

Light Requirements: Light shade to full sun.

Flower Color: Bluish-pink.

Flower Characteristics: Showy.

Flowering Season: Summer-fall.

Fruit: Inconspicuous achene.

Wildlife and Ecology: Nectar plant for obscure skipper (Panoquina panoquinoides), salt marsh skipper (Panoquina panoquin), southern broken-dash (Wallengrenia otho), three-spotted skipper (Cymaenes tripunctus) and other butterflies. Attracts bee pollinators.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.

Comments: See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's Flower Friday page.