Florida Elm may reach over fifty feet with a spreading crown. This southern variety of American Elm can be found in Martin, St. Lucie, Lee and Collier Counties. It is associated with moist inland hammocks mixed with Hackberry, Oaks, Slash Pine, Mulberry and Maple. It does not get Dutch Elm Disease.
The leaves of Florida Elm drop in late fall and the plant remains leafless until flowers and seeds form in early spring. The seeds are eaten by Painted Buntings and other birds and the young leaves are a larval food for the Question Mark Butterfly.
Florida Elm is easy to grow in average Palm Beach County soils and most likely south of there. If the soil is moist, an understory planting of Wild Coffee, Marlberry, Beautyberry, Saw Palmetto, Giant Leather Fern and shade tolerant grasses and low ferns will produce a pleasing effect. A bed of native Swamp, or Marsh Fern makes a nice understory just by themselves.
Although most people don’t like trees that lose their leaves, you may find the leafless tree in winter reminds you of the cool weather up north. Even though it may be 86 degrees out in mid November, standing under a leafless Florida Elm will make you feel almost cold.
Florida Boxwood is endangered and is found only in the upper Florida Keys and southern Dade County near Brickell Hammock. It may reach twenty feet but normally is below ten feet tall. Individual plants are male or female with the female plants producing berries that change from green to yellow to orange and finally bright red. These small BB sized berries are fought over by mockingbirds and shared among small migrating birds.
According to George Gann, from the Center For Regional Conservation, the berries are not poisonous, yet I found them bitter. The related Quailberry and Rhacoma have edible berries.
Florida Boxwood is very drought tolerant once established yet it is not tolerant of salt air or water. Average soil and full sun are best. This is a slow grower that needs little care once up to the desired height and makes a great, light green clipped hedge with two inch narrow leaves. It is a member of the bittersweet family like Quailberry and Rhacoma.
The plants fruit in early fall, which is perfectly timed to provide food for hungry migrating birds. Jamaica Caper, Firebush, Beautyberry, Slash Pine and Simpson Stoppers are also fruiting at this time. Many of our native grasses like Coastal Foxtail, Lopsided Indian Grass, Love Grass, Basketgrass and the Witch Grasses are starting to go to seed, just as the Painted Buntings arrive in early October.
Plant a grouping of Florida Boxwood in order to have male and female plants and mix with other low shrubs. These can be Blackbead, Pineland Strongbark, Pineland Privet, Beach Cocoplum, Firebush, Saw Palmetto, Wild Coffee and Indigo Berry for a drought tolerant mix that can be kept low and rounded and will provide food for your local and migrating birds. Never square your plants!
Firebush is a coffee relative that has red tubular flowers for all but the coldest months and berries that go from yellow, to orange, to red and finally black in late summer and most of the winter.
Firebush is naturally found in coastal and inland hammocks through South and Central Florida and prefers rich soils with organic matter and low levels of wind. Hummingbirds and butterflies visit the flowers and many birds including the cedar waxwings and catbirds eat the fruit.
The berries are edible yet not very tasty and the nectar is sweet when sucked from the flower; kids love this. To maintain at a low height, simply cut back to between ground level and two feet once a year. If not trimmed, it becomes a 15 foot shrub which can be limbed up to produce thick vertical branches to allow easy passage underneath. Place a birdbath and feeder nearby; six feet of clear trunk will prevent cats from surprising your birds.
The non native Hamelia patens variety glabra, sold as “compacta,” “African” or “Dwarf Firebush” from Central America is now what you will find sold as the native Firebush in most garden centers. The leaves lack the slight hairiness of the native and feel like rubber. If the leaves grow off the stem in groups of three or four, it is native and if there are four or five in a whorl, it is the non native. Frustratingly, these characteristics often overlap.
The non native Firebush has a more yellow flower, grows into an ugly 20 foot tall mess with fewer flowers than the native and less wildlife attracted to it. It also hybridizes with the native so that seed spread by birds is often not the true native. It may seem silly to worry about this but we could lose our native plant to the rapidly escaping hybrids.
I like to use several masses of Firebush in a landscape to give the hummingbirds a feeding route to follow. There used to be bumblebees found on Firebush, but they have disappeared in South Florida recently. When planting a butterfly and hummingbird garden, use Firebush as a backdrop and to shield people from thorny larval hosts like Hercules Club, Wild Lime, Catclaw and Blackbead.
Full sun is best and stay away from soil toxin producing trees like Black Olive. Add Pavonia, Red Salvia, Necklacepod, Goldenrod, Verbena, Bluecurls and other wildflowers for nectar. Plant Chapman’s Cassia, Redbay, Hercules Club, Corky Passionvine, Milkweed and native grasses for larval foods.
Fiddlewood is found along the coast from the Upper Keys to Brevard county. It is an arching, medium size shrub along the coast, yet may become a 30 foot tree in protected inland sites. The reddish brown to gray bark becomes furrowed with age.
Fiddlewood is very tolerant of salt air yet is wind sheared along the coast. It can be occasionally attacked by moth larva which shred the leaves and white fly which blacken the plant. The moth larvae become food for wildlife and the plant always grows back. The whitefly may need to be sprayed. If clouds of tiny white insects fly out when the tree is shaken, you have whitefly.
Small dioecious white flowers occur on thin drooping spikes and give off a sweet fragrance. The pea sized berries turn golden when ripe and become dried and black before falling; so no messy berries. Birds eat the fruit and butterflies visit the flowers. The fruit is sweet and edible to humans. When planted inland, use as a small 12 foot tree with a single trunk or prune to make bushy. It can even by planted close to the doorway to provide fragrance as you come and go.
Fiddlewood is one of the most drought tolerant native trees or shrubs that establishes very quickly in average to dry soil. It looks nice coming out of a mass of Saw Palmetto and Beautyberry or mixed with Wild Lime, Firebush, Wild Coffee, Jamaica Caper, Spanish Stopper and other coastal shrubs. It does not make a square hedge though due to its sprawling growth.
False Indigobush is also known as Bastard Indigobush…this is a real selling point. It is found throughout North America to Palm Beach County. In our area I have only found it near the Loxahatchee and St. Lucie rivers, although I’m sure it is near other local rivers.
It likes moist soil that doesn’t flood for long and makes a nice six to eight foot tall thicket with sparkly purple flowers on a moderate number of six inch long tail like racemes. These are most abundant in the spring.
The hard thistle like seeds are eaten by birds and the foliage is the larval food for the silver spotted skipper and southern dogface butterflies. The dogface is not a local butterfly though.
Full sun to partial shade and a moderately rich soil are required, yet it can be surprisingly drought tolerant once established. The feathery compound foliage of False Indigobush is a nice break in texture and can be planted near a window to give a “country” look and break up a dull foundation planting.
Plant a mass if you have a wet area of the yard or mix it in with Saw Palmetto, Buttonbush, Willow, Wax Myrtle, Beautyberry, Spartina Grass, Cypress, Red Maple and other wetland species.
Elderberry is often found in moist soil along the edge of wetlands of the East Coast down to Dade County. It will not tolerate long periods of flooding and must be protected from salt air and water. Growth is from 8-20 feet coming from multiple canes. Root suckers are common so give it an area where it can expand.
The white heads of flowers provide nectar for pollinators and can be dipped in batter and fried. The clusters of black berries are tasty and make a good juice or wine. The leaves and other parts of the plant are poisonous. It is suggested that if you drink over a cup of the juice, you cook it briefly first.
Plant along a lake edge, out of the reach of flooding, or near your cypress swamp or other low, moist areas. The soil must not dry out for long. Catbirds and others love the fruit and will stay near Elderberry when it is fruiting during the winter months.
Mix Elderberry with Wax Myrtle, Salt Bush, Slash Pine, Carolina Willow, Red Maple, Sweet Gum, Florida Elm or just the sunny edge of a wetland habitat for an attractive mass planting.
Hollies are what people think of when they hear the word “dioecious”. This simply means that each plant has either male or female flowers. The female flower has a small swelling (ovary) at the base and no orange anthers on the end of the stamens.
By planting three or more dahoon hollies in a cluster, you will be sure to have at least one male to ensure pollination and lots of red berries with viable seed inside. You can always remove all but one male. Female plants will produce berries, but without a male plant nearby, the seed will be infertile.
Dahoon Holly is found along the edge of swamps from the keys throughout the Southeastern US Coast. It prefers moist, acid soils where it may receive short term flooding yet will tolerate drought. Dahoon Holly grows to 30 or more feet and can be easily kept at 15 feet or less. It will tolerate a small amount of salt air and very little salt water flooding.
If there is a wet area in your yard, try planting a group of Dahoon hollies mixed with Pond Apple, Bald or Pond Cypress, Swamp Redbay, Red Maple, Button Bush, Swamp Fern, and other wetland species. The trunk becomes clear of branches and white with red lichen as the tree gets taller. A small grove of Dahoon Holly with a path going through it and a bench to sit on can be a magical part of the yard.
The small berries ripen in early fall and are a major food source for birds and other animals. The fruit are not poisonous to humans yet not tasty.
Crabwood, which is also called Oysterwood, is found in coastal hammocks throughout the Florida Keys and Dade County and has a small population in Palm Beach County.
This is a round tree that grows to 25 feet with four inch oval leaves and catkins of small green male or reddish female flowers. The wind pollinated Male and female flowers are separate on the same plant. When dry, the half inch rounded pod splits and scatters three small seeds.
These are not an important food for birds yet the leaves are a larval food for the Florida purplewing butterfly in the Keys. Numerous seedlings will come up after a good fruiting year.
The burgundy new growth is beautiful and the moderate size and round shape make this a good front yard tree. Mix Crabwood with other hammock species. Tall Paradise, Mastic, Live Oak and Pigeon Plum can be planted within ten feet while lower and bushy Jamaica Caper, Black Ironwood, Marlberry, Stoppers and Lancewood will need their own space of 10-20 feet from Crabwood.
This small tree can be trimmed low and makes a great, rounded hedge in parking lots and other harsh environments with heat and poor soil. Please don’t square any hedge plant, it just ruins the appearance. Protect from direct salt air and flooding.
Coralbean is a member of the bean family with two inch long red tubular flowers in the spring followed by six inch pods with red poisonous seeds inside. It grows normally to eight feet, but can reach 20 or more feet. The branches and trifoliate leaves have curved thorns; fortunately the plant is upright and can be given a moderate amount of space to avoid them. It also makes a good barrier plant.
Found normally in dry pinelands, scrub and coastal dunes from the Keys through the Southeastern US, Coralbean is one of the most drought tolerant plants available. It can tolerate salt air and some salt water flooding, yet I have seen it tolerate fresh waterlogged soils for long periods of time.
Plant this where it can either stand as an accent plant or mix with other plants like Saw Palmetto, Wild Coffee, Firebush, Blackbead, Beautyberry and other plants that will shield the public from the thorns. In northern areas it is frozen to the ground and sends up beautiful red flower spikes in the spring. You can cut the plant to the ground each winter to mimic this effect and keep the plant low. Make sure to remove the developing seed pods if there are children in the area; the seeds, again, are poisonous.
Hummingbirds nectar on the red tubular flowers which makes this a great plant for a hummingbird attracting garden when mixed with Necklacepod, Firebush, Pavonia, Bahama Strongbark, Salvia, and Dicliptera.
Cinnecord is a very rare native shrub found in upper Key Largo. It can be a bit invasive if planted outside its range, yet nothing that requires much work to control. This is a tall shrub up to 20 feet that makes a nice specimen. In spring it is full of half inch round fragrant yellow flowers growing in clusters.
The three inch long, oblong seed pods have small brown seeds inside that are held together by a white aril that attracts bats for dispersal. There are many Cinnecord plants in the Bahamas and many bats too, yet few bats in South Florida. This may be why the seeds are usually found near the parent plant and not spread throughout the Keys.
Due to its spreading habit, you may want to give Cinnecord its own space and not crowd it with other trees. A grove of Cinnecord is attractive and mimics the colonies found in nature. It unfortunately is not great for wildlife, but is interesting, rare and very drought tolerant with a moderate amount of salt tolerance.
Plant it twenty feet from a Lignum Vitae, Buccaneer Palms, the Thatch Palms and other tree species. Then under plant with Chapman’s Cassia, Key Lilies, Coonties, Native Porterweed, Necklacepod, Snowberry, Sea Lavender, Rhacoma-Maidenbush, Wild Sage and low wildflowers.
