General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations.
Ecological Restoration Notes: It can be used as one of many understory herbs in pine rocklands.
Availability:
Grown by enthusiasts.
Description: Small herb.
Dimensions: About 4-8 inches in height. Spreading from underground stems (rhizomes) and forming small, open patches much broader than tall.
Growth Rate: Fast.
Range:
Endemic to the Monroe County Keys and Miami-Dade County. In the Monroe County Keys, apparently disjunct from Miami-Dade County to the pine rocklands of Big Pine Key and nearby islands; also reported for Key Largo, but perhaps introduced there.
Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Map of Postal Code Areas of IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Habitats: Pine rocklands.
Soils: Moist, well-drained limestone soils, without humus.
Nutritional Requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils.
Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate long-term 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: Yellowish-green.
Flower Characteristics: Inconspicuous.
Flowering Season: All year.
Fruit: inconspicuous, 3-lobed capsule.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.
