General Landscape Uses:
Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also wildflower gardens.
Ecological Restoration Notes: It can be used as one of many understory herbs in pine rocklands.
Availability:
Available at native plant nurseries in central Florida.
Description: Small herbaceous wildflower.
Dimensions: Bout 6-12 inches in height. Spreading and forming small open patches broader than tall.
Growth Rate: Moderate.
Range:
Monroe County Keys and Miami-Dade County; West Indies. In the Monroe County Keys, disjunct from Miami-Dade County to the pine rocklands of Big Pine Key.
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: Dark blue with 2 parallel white stripes.
Flower Characteristics: Showy, 5/8" long and 1/2" wide.
Flowering Season: All year.
Fruit: Inconspicuous nutlet.
Wildlife and Ecology: Valuable source of seeds for birds.
Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed and division.
Comments: It is listed as endangered by the state of Florida.
