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

General Landscape Uses: Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations.

Description: Twining, low climbing vine.

Dimensions: N/A; a vine with stems to 8 feet or more in length.

Growth Rate: Moderate.

Range: Monroe and Miami-Dade counties north along the west coast to Manatee County; West Indies, Central America and South America.

 Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.

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

Habitats: Hammocks and thickets, mostly along the coasts.

Soils: Moist, well-drained limestone or calcareous sandy 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 to full sun.

Flower Color: Bright pink with thin white lines fading to bluish-pink.

Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy.

Flowering Season: All year.

Fruit: Small brown pod (legume).

Wildlife and Ecology: Larval host plant for cassius blue (Leptotes cassius), long-tailed skipper (Urbanus proteus), zestos skipper (Epargyreus zestos) and zarucco duskywing (Erynnis zarucco) butterflies. Nectar plant for hammock skipper (Polygonus leo) and other butterflies.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.