Pineland Privet

Forestiera pinetorum

Pineland Privet is native to the Miami Rocklands and Everglades Park. This is a very drought tolerant plant that grows well thru Palm Beach County.

Plants are male and female with the males producing masses of flowers almost every month. These small white fragrant flowers attract many bees and butterflies, including Ruddy Daggerwings and Atala Hairstreaks. The bush will buzz with honeybees when in bloom, yet bees rarely sting when busy collecting nectar.

The female plants, which bloom less often, produce half inch long black fruit in early spring and late summer when the birds need them the most. These are bitter and may cause a stomach ache if many are eaten.

Use as a clipped hedge or a fluffy mass up to ten feet tall. The leaves drop briefly in the spring while the plant first flowers. If stem galling is noticed, cut off the twig below the gall with a clean tool and dip the tool in a ten percent chlorine solution between cuts.

The Pineland Privet is a must for butterfly gardens. It can be used as a ten foot tall background plant or mixed in with other tall shrubs.

Try mixing this with Bloodberry, Florida Keys Thoroughwort, Firebush, Florida Boxwood, Chapman’s Cassia, and Blackbead. Native Plumbago can be planted on the south side and allowed to form a six foot tall mass that also attracts many butterflies.

For a Rockland theme mix Pineland Privet with Southern Slash Pine, Tetrazygia, Beautyberry, Wild coffee, Marlberry, Myrsine, Guettarda scabra, Dahoon Holly, Saw Palmetto, Silver Palm, Coontie and the plants above.

If you want a one foot tall boxed hedge or edging, Pineland Privet will do well. It will, of course, produce few flowers and fruit when tortured this way.

For information about the related and similar Florida Privet click here.