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

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

Availability: Widely available in central Florida. Available at native plant nurseries in northeast and South Florida.

Description: Medium herbaceous wildflower.

Dimensions: About 2-3 inches in height; to 3 feet when in flower. Taller than broad when in flower.

Growth Rate: Moderate.

Range: Widespread in eastern North America south to Miami-Dade and Collier counties. Perhaps never present or extirpated in Broward County. Not documented on barrier islands in South Florida, but possibly historically present; it is cultivated 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 and prairies.

Soils: Moist to wet, well-drained to moderately well drained sandy or limestone soils, without humus.

Nutritional Requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils.

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: High; does not require any supplemental water once established.

Light Requirements: Full sun.

Flower Color: Rose purplish.

Flower Characteristics: Showy.

Flowering Season: Summer-fall.

Fruit: Inconspicuous achene.

Wildlife and Ecology: Atttracts bees, butterflies and other beneficial insect pollinators. Valuable source of insects for birds.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.

Comments: See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's Flower Friday page. See a 2018 post on the Treasure Coast Natives blog on Blazing Stars and their flowers.