Alligatorlily
Hymenocallis palmeri
Amaryllidaceae


Landscape Uses:

Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also wet wildflower gardens.

Ecological Restoration Notes:

Availability:
Grown by enthusiasts.
Description:
Small to medium herbaceous wildflower.
Height:
Typically 1-2 feet in height, more when in flower. About as broad as tall.
Growth Rate:
Moderate.
Range:
Endemic to Florida from Miami-Dade County and the Monroe County mainland north to Brevard, Osceola, Hillsborough and Pinellas counties; disjunct in Duval and Bradford counties.
Habitats:
Marshes and marl prairies.
Soils:
Wet to moist, seasonally inundated calcareous or sandy 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:
Low; requires moist to wet soils and is intolerant of long periods of drought.
Light Requirements:
Full sun.
Flower Color:
White.
Flower Characteristics:
Showy.
Flowering Season:
Spring-fall.
Fruit:
Globose fleshy capsule.
Wildlife and Ecology:
Horticultural Notes:
Can be grown from seed and divisions.
Comments:
Luber grasshoppers eat the leaves. See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's Flower Friday page.


James Johnson, 2013
In habitat, Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida
Enlarge
Roger L. Hammer
Shirley Denton