General Landscape Uses:
Specimen or screen.
Availability:
Available at native plant nurseries in northeast Florida.
Description: Shrub or sometimes a small evergreen tree up to 25 feet tall with thick elliptic leaves 1-4 inches long. Showy pink to white flowers in clusters.
Dimensions: Up to 25 feet in height.
Range:
Eastern United States south to the Florida panhandle from Escambia to Leon counties. A population is also present in Suwannee county in north Florida. For a digitized image of Elbert Little's Florida range map, visit the
Exploring Florida website.
Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida.
Habitats: Bluff forests and creek swamps.
Soils: Seasonally wet to moist, well-drained to moderately well-drained sandy or limestone 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: Moderate; generally requires moist soils, but tolerant of short periods of drought once established.
Light Requirements: Light shade.
Flower Color: Pink to white.
Flower Characteristics: Showy.
Flowering Season: Late spring.
Fruit: Round pods.
References: Mellichamp (
2014), Wunderlin and Hansen 2011
Comments: Foliage supposedly poisonous to livestock and humans. We have been adding data for this species for central and northern Florida and welcome any feedback or review. If you would like to contribute information or images, please contact George Gann via the IRC staff page. See also the Florida Wildflower Foundation's
Flower Friday page.
