Locustberry
Byrsonima lucida
Locustberry is a four to five foot shrub in the Miami Rocklands within the Everglades Park, yet may reach 35 feet when growing along the shoreline of the Florida Keys. Seed source will determine how tall it will grow.
The flowers occur from April thru June with the fruit ripening by the end of June. The mass of white, changing to pink, then to red flowers are incredible when in full bloom in April. Birds like the pea sized brown berries, which are edible to humans too. It is a larval food of the Florida duskywing butterfly.
The taller coastal variety is salt tolerant, full and can be kept as a low and rounded hedge. Once established in rich soil, it needs no additional watering. The Rockland variety tends to have less branching giving it an open look that goes well with a garden resembling stressed environmental conditions.
Mix the rockland variety with Lignum Vitae, Chapman’s Cassia, Quailberry, Golden Creeper, Thatch Palms, Pineland Privet and other rockland plants. The tall coastal variety can be used the same way but will lack the more tortured look of the rockland variety. Both will put your neighbor’s flowering exotics to shame.
Locustberry is cold tolerant up to middle Palm Beach County.