Balloonvine is also known as Heartseed and is native to the southern portion of Dade and Monroe counties and the Florida Keys. It is a fast growing vine that grows in average soil. Although it is drought tolerant, it is not salt tolerant and should be planted in full sun where protected from salt air and water.
This is a larval host plant for the silver-banded hairstreak and gray hairstreak butterflies. It has been said that the Miami blue also uses this plant, and may well have in the past. But, this butterfly has used the Nickerbean, Caesalpinia bunduc, exclusively recently. Unfortunately the tips of the Nickerbean were also fed upon by iguanas. This is why the last colony of Miami blues at Bahia Honda State Park has disappeared.
There are three, four inch long, toothed leaflets that look like small poison oak leaves. The invasive Balloonvine, Cardiospermum halicacabum, has deeper lobes and teeth. See this description for details click here.
Since this is a fast growing vine, it will need something to climb on. In South Florida it lives year round and can climb 30 feet up into a nearby tree. The small white flowers are followed by a papery swollen pod that is one inch in diameter and contains three black seeds with a white heart shaped spot on each.
Butterflies like to nectar on the flowers and the reddish young pods are very attractive. Balloonvine will cover an ugly chainlink fence, dead tree or other unsightly objects. I have found it to spread naturally in the yard, yet it is not too aggressive and can easily be controlled.
I have not tried eating the young leaves of this plant, but I have read that they are used in Asia as a steamed vegetable. The young and old seeds are not edible. See this link for more info click here.
If you are looking for a vine that grows over ten feet a year and will cover large unsightly areas quickly, this is a good choice. For more information about this plant click here.
Basketgrass
Oplismenus hirtellus subsp. setarius
Basketgrass is a low growing native grass. It stays below three inches tall, has up to three inch long leaves and creeps along the ground creating a moderately dense groundcover for shady, moist areas. The seedheads can reach almost 12 inches tall in the fall and provide food for seed eating painted buntings just when they arrive for the winter.
The seeds are a bit sticky and tend to cling to dog hair, but are not hard to remove. This plant is found naturally from the Keys to North Carolina along the coast and in inland hammocks. Port Mayaka Trail along the eastern side of Lake Okeechobee has beautiful beds of basketgrass in some areas.
During a drought, basketgrass will die back, yet it returns with a vengeance with the summer rains. If you have a shady oak that other grasses won’t grow under, try planting a few patches of this. It will soon spread to other shady portions of the yard.
There is an invasive look alike called Wavyleaf Basketgrass that should not be planted. Click here for more info. I have had native Basketgrass on my property for over 15 years and have never had it come up in an unwanted location. It covers my shady paths and the bare areas under my oaks and other shade trees.
If you are tired of mowing under your trees and want a soft grass that takes moderate foot traffic, this is a great choice. Sometimes a plant labeled as a lawn weed is actually tough enough to replace your lawn with.
Take a look under a natural stand of oaks the next time you go on a hike and you will probably find that there is a nice green cover of this along with witch grass and ferns.
Here is an interesting thread of comments about this native grass. Click here.
Short-Leaf Fig
Ficus citrifolia
Short-Leaf Fig or Wild Banyan Tree is native to southern Dade County and the Keys. It is as wide as tall and rarely over forty feet tall. There is usually a single, whitish straight trunk. Aerial roots may be sent down from the branches but are not as numerous as with Strangler Fig.
This is not a salt tolerant tree, but is very drought tolerant. The fruit are up to half an inch wide and are a super magnet to migrating birds. The young leaves are the larval food of the Ruddy Daggerwing Butterfly.
Just look for the long leaf stem which is of equal length as the leaf blade. The Strangler Fig has a shorter leaf stem (petiole).
If you want to attract Ruddy Daggerwings and many migrating warblers, cedar waxwings and local birds and animals, this is a truly great plant. I saw ten different species of birds on one tree in the keys during spring migration. The figs are tasty and fun to eat during a long hike.
The few aerial roots that are sent down can be cut off in order to keep a clean narrow trunk. This is a more polite neighbor that can be mixed in with other tall trees and not crowd them out the way a Strangler Fig will.
If you have a Short Leaf, Strangler Fig or Mulberry when the cedar waxwings pass through in the spring, you will see many of them come to your tree and gorge on the fruit.
Most hammock tree species will combine well with Short-Leaf Fig, but Gumbo Limbo, Pigeon Plum, Satin Leaf, Simpson Stopper, Soldierwood, Poisonwood, and Willow Bustic have beautiful bark that combines with Short-Leaf Fig to create a magical effect.
Make groups of each of these trees and underplant with ferns, Coontie, Wild Coffee, Marlberry, Jamaica Caper, White Stopper, Red Salvia, Dicliptera, Snowberry and other shade tolerant plants.
The Strangler or Golden Fig is one of my favorite South Florida trees. It grows to fifty feet or more tall and wide and is one of the best trees for birds to feed from.
The pea sized edible figs are produced several times a year and are a favorite for not only songbirds, but hummingbirds (which pick fruit flies off the tops of the rotting fruit) and squirrels.
The five inch oblong leaves are food for the larvae of the Ruddy Daggerwing Butterfly and other insects which birds feed to their young. Look for a striped caterpillar on the young leaves.
It will send down many aerial roots from its branches and takes up a lot of space. Don’t plant Strangler Fig too close to your house or especially near your septic drainage system or a pool.
The roots go down deep and anchor the plant during high winds. Some branches broke, but the trees stayed upright in our yard during hurricanes Frances, Jeanne and Wilma. Many of the shallow rooted exotic ficus fell over at this time revealing that their roots only went a few inches deep.
Although it seems that the roots of this epiphytic plant strangle the host, I have noticed that in most cases, the roots are a couple of inches away from the host’s trunk. Strangler Fig only rarely kills the host by shading it out.
I have seen Bald Cypress fight back by growing its trunk around the fig’s roots as if biting them. There is one like this at the start of the marsh trail at the A.R.M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge in Boynton Beach.
Along the Rafael Sanchez Trail on the east side of Lake Okeechobee there are old Bald Cypress whose trunks have continued to expand when circled by a large fig’s roots and broken the roots away.
Besides being found inland in swampy to dry soils, the Strangler Fig is also found in coastal hammocks. It is fairly tolerant of salt wind and occasional salt water flooding.
Lobate Lac Scale and Philephedra scale are two of the worst pests of Strangler fig and may cover the young branches. The tree will become black with sooty mold which is just moldy sugar water from the insects excretions. Often you can just wait until a natural predatory insect cleans up the infestation.
Mix Strangler Fig with other hammock species like Gumbo Limbo, Paradise Tree, Mastic, Pigeon Plum, Red Mulberry, Live Oak, Lancewood and Sabal Palms. Or for a swamp planting, try Hackberry, Bald Cypress, Sabal Palm, Florida Elm, Laurel Oak, Live Oak and Slash Pine.
The understory shrubs may include Wild Coffee, Marlberry, White Stopper, Dicliptera, Wild Plumbago, native ferns, Coastal Foxtail, Coontie and Snowberry.
Cedar Waxwings will flock to your Strangler Fig during spring migration and feast on the berries.
Milkbark is also known as Whitewood. It occurs in rocklands of the Florida Keys mixed in with other hammock species. Milkbark is not tolerant of salt air or salt water, but is drought tolerant once established.
This is an unusual, narrow tree or shrub that reaches 35 or more feet in height after many years. It grows very slowly and will tolerate partial shade. Full sun and rich soil will produce a denser, faster growing plant.
The flowers are male and female on different plants (dioecious) and the pollen my cause allergies. The fruit is an oval white drupe that is poisonous and dries before falling. The single seed is a half inch long and hard. Remove the fruit if there are children around.
The young leaves, which look like holly leaves, are food for the larva of the Florida white butterfly. Older leaves are oval and up to five inches long.
This makes a great addition to a Keys planting. Mix with Wild Dilly, Gumbo Limbo, Paradise Tree, Mastic, Myrsine, Joewood, Lignum Vitae, Seven Year Apple, Maidenberry, Marlberry, Bahama Strongbark, Pigeon Plum, Blolly, Willow Bustic and Wild Tamarind.
Keep it in the sunny portions of the planting or on the outside south exposure.
Winged Sumac is found in mesic (moist) pinelands and the coast from the Keys throughout the Eastern and Central U.S.. The height is usually 15 feet or less, yet may reach 30 feet. Very tolerant of drought and small amounts of salt air, yet not tolerant of salt water flooding. Short periods of freshwater flooding are tolerated.
Unfortunately Winged Sumac sends out suckers far from the parent plant. Best if grown as a colony under slash pine and given room to wander. The plants are dioecious, so plant several if you want the red berries which follow interesting white masses of flowers that attract many butterflies and bees.
A lemonade flavored drink can be made by rubbing the red berries in some water, straining and adding sugar to the reddish water. This covering contains malic (unripe apple) acid which is what makes Sweet Tarts taste sour.
Plant a mass to fill up a large bare area of the yard or along a wall or side of the house. Winged Sumac will rise above Saw Palmetto and other low shrubs in a pineland, pine rockland or coastal setting. This is a larval food for the red-banded hairstreak.
If suckers are removed periodically, a single tree can be formed. In the fall, the leaves turn a beautiful red before falling and leaving the tree bare for February. The light green new growth in the spring is joined by masses of white flowers. These ripen into cones of red seeds on the female plants by late summer.
Plant with Saw Palmetto, Wax Myrtle, Coralbean, Slash Pine, Myrsine, Dahoon Holly, Cocoplum, Beautyberry and any of the other plants of the pine rocklands.
A coastal theme will include plants found on the dune like Saw Palmetto, Wild Coffee, Marlberry, Horizontal Cocoplum, Coralbean, Myrsine, Hercules Club, Scrub Redbay, Wild Lime, Spanish and Simpson Stoppers, Jamaica Caper and Florida Privet.
On a natural dune these are all kept low by high winds, so trimming will keep these plants rounded and full if you live inland.
Wild Tamarind is native to hammocks within Everglades National Park and portions of the Upper Keys. This large, fast growing tree will reach 50 feet or more in height. It will do well through Palm Beach County and survive freezing temperatures for short periods.
This is a great spreading accent tree with tiny leaflets that fall briefly in late winter. This allows sunlight to briefly warm your home. It has many one inch round white flowers that attract butterflies and bees. The seed pods are thin and dry and do not make a mess.
Gradually prune the branches of a young tree so that they are several feet apart, evenly spaced and have a wide angle to the trunk. Sharp angled branches tend to break off.
The soil should be deep and dry and not too fertile or else the tree will grow too fast and tend to break in only moderate winds. A tree that starts breaking early in moderate winds should be moved or removed if the leader is lost.
Plant on the south side or the northwest corner of the house for summer shade. Wild tamarind allows just enough light thru to support shade tolerant shrubs underneath.
Wild Tamarind can be under planted with Wild Coffee, Firebush, Coontie, Marlberry, Wild Plumbago, White Stopper and other native shrubs. When Wild Tamarind is planted near a window and under planted with these shrubs, birds will have enough protection to visit a feeder and bird bath.
From your window you can easily watch painted buntings, goldfinches and indigo buntings in a feeder. Warblers, vireos and many other birds will eat insects that they find on the bark. Painted buntings love the young seeds of red salvia which is shade tolerant.
The foliage is the larval food for the cassius blue, large orange sulphur and the mimosa yellow butterflies. Female large orange sulphur butterflies are often seen hovering around this tree as they look for new leaves to lay their eggs on.
Look carefully when hiking in the upper Keys and you will notice groups of Wild tamarind only a few feet from each other. The result is a grove of straight white trunks creating a magical setting. Gumbo Limbo, Willow Bustic, Poisonwood, Soldierwood and Pigeon Plum crowded into this setting will add to the effect that trees with unusual bark create.
Wild Lime is in the citrus family, yet the fruit is a black BB sized seed. These occur in clusters in the fall and are eaten by seed eating birds like cardinals. They can be crushed and fried in oil to give the oil a citrusy flavor. Remove the seed parts before using this oil.
Male and female flowers are found on separate plants, so plant several Wild Lime in order to be sure you’ll have the seeds for local cardinals. At least plant from a pot containing several seedlings if you only want one multitrunked specimen with male and female plants.
The small leaflets give this shrub or small tree the look of an Orange Jasmine. It can be grown as a hedge or small accent tree. Unfortunately the branches spread like a Brazilian Pepper, so give it lots of room if you don’t plan on cutting it back often.
Nothing makes a better security hedge than Wild Lime. I have found that a hedge of Wild Lime will look uniformly green. The thorns are the size of and are hooked like a cat’s claw. They tear the skin and should not be planted near where friendly people walk. It can be limbed up for people to pass under though.
Some salt air, drought, cold and poor soil are tolerated. This shrub can be found from the Keys to Volusia County and west of there.
This is the larval food for the giant swallowtail butterfly and possibly the endangered Schaus’ swallowtail butterfly of the Florida Keys. A combination of Wild Lime and Hercules Club will ensure that you have several giant swallowtail butterflies in the yard. You are not likely to have the Schaus’ swallowtail, even if you live in the Keys.
I have found this plant in cow pastures, scrub, coastal and inland hammocks and scrubby pine flatwoods.
A nice combination planting might include Saw Palmetto, Tough Bumelia, Simpson Stopper, Jamaica Caper, Black Ironwood, Willow Bustic, Scrub Red Bay, Beautyberry, Necklace Pod, Scrub Palmetto, Myrsine and Coralbean. Of course many other plants can be included.
Wild Lime is also one of the safest places for local birds to nest. Cats and other predators just can’t get through it.
Wild coffee is one of our most shade tolerant native shrubs with shiny, dark green leaves and red berries. It grows to six feet or more tall in rich hammock soil. Wild coffee should be protected from continuous direct sun and wind. This is a very tropical looking shrub.
Although it can take long periods of drought, this is the first plant to show wilt. Just give it a little water and it will perk up within the hour. Long periods of drought may cause some of the upper portion to die back, even with established plants. When rains come, the plant quickly regains its height.
The white flowers are showy in late summer and attract many pollinators. The red berries brighten the yard in late fall and early winter. These are edible, but not very tasty; birds love them.
This is a little too fast growing to make a foundation planting. Try as a specimen on the corner or windowless portions of the north or east sides of the house. A mixed hedge under shade may consist of Wild Coffee, Marlberry, White, Spanish, Red and Simpson Stoppers and Mysine.
These also look nice along the outer edge of a densely planted grove of hammock trees. In this situation, blend in Snowberry, Beautyberry, Wild Plumbago, Jamaica Caper and other hammock species to capture the look of a coastal hammock.
White Stopper is found along the coast and in inland hammocks from the Keys through Volusia County. Although it may reach a height of 30 feet, most are 12 feet and can be trimmed to much less. The growth is upright and narrow.
It is drought tolerant once established and tolerant of salt air when planted in back of other vegetation. White Stopper can even tolerate a short period of salt water flooding after a storm.
Although it prefers rich hammock soil, average soil will due. The masses of small white flowers are fragrant in the spring and are followed by green to red to black edible berries which are favored by birds in late winter.
Mix with any coastal or hammock species in sun or deep shade. A deep shade mix includes: Marlberry, Wild Coffee, Spanish Stopper, Native Plumbago (known as Leadwort), Snowberry and Lancewood as an understory tree.
Out in full sun, Saw Palmetto, Myrsine, Fiddlewood, Simpson Stopper, Coralbean, Beach Cocoplum, Scrub Redbay, Necklace Pod, Jamaica Caper, Florida Privet and most other hammock species will combine with this narrow shrub.
Some people think the foliage smells like a skunk, yet it is more of a faint fragrance of coffee and reminds one of the natural smell of the hammock forest.
I find that a group of several oddly spaced White Stopper looks natural and will provide a screened, private place to sit. Since White Stopper, like Marlberry suckers, it will continue to spread making a natural flowing screen. The Planted look will transform into a completely natural look over time.
It is a bit hard to tell the difference between White Stopper and Red Stopper. I find that the Red Stopper has more closely spaced leaves lined up in a plane. The leaves also tend to be more round and shorter while the bark is light gray.
The White Stopper has white bark, larger leaves that tilt like a Jalousie Window and are farther apart on the stem. They have an almost whorled appearance rather than the flat lineup of the Red Stopper.
