Marlberry is a tall, columnar shrub found in Central and South Florida in inland forests and maritime hammocks up to North Florida. Marlberry can take full sun or deep shade, moist soil or dry and short term flooding. It is tolerant of salt air, yet not salt water flooding.
Use Marlberry as a privacy screen or as a tall, free standing specimen. The flowers smell sweet and fruity, yet are not overpowering. Suckers will come up from the roots and fill in a hedge. The pea sized black berries are produced in the spring and several other times of the year. They are edible and you may like the sweet astringent taste but don’t chew the seed.
This is a high quality shrub that can be pruned back once a year to keep it less than six feet tall or left to grow naturally up to 16 feet. When planted where it can sucker freely, you will end up with a mass of plants often stretching twelve feet in a long band. This gives the very natural look of a thicket. Catbirds love the berries, several may be found in the area of a fruiting marlberry.
I have found this plant growing wild along our coast from the Keys to Vero Beach, sometimes in full sun. It is said to occur up to Flagler County along the East Coast. I have also found it in Orchard View Park in Delray Beach and along the Port Mayaca Trail, which is very shady, on the eastern side of Lake Okeechobee. Some sources say that the plant is poisonous, but this is not true, although please don’t eat it.
This is one of my favorite shrubs and can be used almost anywhere due to its tolerance of dry, occasionally wet, rich or poor soil and shady or sunny areas. As part of a mixed hedge I plant several together and give them room to sucker and fill empty spaces between themselves and other plants.
Use with Wild Coffee, Myrsine, Firebush, Myrtle of the River, Indigo Berry, Florida Boxwood, Small’s Viburnum, Crabwood, Bitterbush, Jamaica Caper, Simpson, Spanish, White, Red and Redberry Stoppers. These are all upright shrubs that mix well. Marlberry is a great understory plant for Live Oak, Gumbo Limbo, Mastic, Red Maple, Hackberry, Florida Elm and many other tall trees.
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.
Live oak, or Virginia Live Oak is native from the upper Florida Keys through the Southeastern United States and Texas. It is one of the most beautiful and long lived trees of Florida. Several hundred years is not uncommon. The flowers are wind pollinated in the spring and the leaves fall all at once in March making cleanup a one time event.
The growth is moderate to fast, depending on soil and moisture with a height of 30 to 60 or more feet and a spreading crown when not competing with other tall trees. Once the corky bark and spreading habit are recognized, it becomes easy to tell this oak from the similar Laurel Oak. Laurel Oak has a dominant central leader and smoother bark.
Live oak will grow from dry uplands to moist soil with occasional flooding, such as along the edge of cypress swamps. It is found inland, often mixed with other tall trees like Slash Pine, Laurel Oak and Sabal Palm. Along the coast it mixes with many trees and shrubs including Mastic, Red Bay, Paradise Tree, Pigeon Plum, Satin Leaf and Red Mulberry. Live Oak can tolerate some salt air and short term saltwater flooding.
The understory of a Live Oak includes Wild Coffee, Beautyberry, Saw Palmetto, Snowberry, Marlberry, Basket Grass, Coastal Foxtail, Spiderwort, Swamp Fern, Coralbean, Wild Plumbago, Coontie and White Stopper.
The larva of the Horace’s Duskywing, the White M and the Red Banded Hairstreak and possibly other butterflies feed on the leaves. The acorns are a major food source for wildlife and once were for Native American Indians. The branches provide hiding spaces and nest sites for various birds and animals.
Orchids and bromeliads attach to the bark and many insects feed on the leaves. These become food for migrating warblers and other birds. Just sit under a live oak with your binoculars in the morning during the winter months and especially the fall and spring migrations and you will see various warblers, vireos and other small birds moving through the branches as they feed.
Limber Caper or Bayleaf Capertree is naturally found along our east coast from the Keys to Volusia County. Usually it is found along the edge of mangroves where the soil is moist and rich, yet where it doesn’t get too much salt air or saltwater flooding. It may be seen growing over small trees or along the water’s edge as a tangled groundcover.
During the Spring, Florida White and Great Southern White butterflies may be seen laying their eggs on the new growth. Later, thousands of Great Southern White butterflies, which also lay their eggs on other mustard relatives like Cakile, Collards, Arugula, and Kale can be seen flying along the coastline and into our yards.
The leaves of Limber Caper are four inches long and oval. The pink flowers are wispy and three inches across. These are followed by a pod up to ten inches long or more with white coated seeds inside. The inside of the pod is deep pink and the combination of the two look like a grisly smile when the pod splits open. The fruit is not poisonous or tasty. This is one of the few plants I know of that is funny to look at.
Bayleaf Capertree needs fertile soil and a sunny location and can withstand dry periods quite well. It mixes well with other trees and shrubs as long as it gets a few hours of full sun each day. It does well on a fence or just allowed to spread and climb through the other trees.
Try a mixture of Limber Caper with Jamaica Caper, Wild Lime or Hercules Club, Redbay, Gumbo Limbo, Green Buttonwood, Saltbush, Saw Palmetto or Beach Cocoplum. This is a unique plant that should be added to a butterfly attracting garden. Click for more info
Lignum Vitae
Guaiacum sanctum
Lignum Vitae is native to and endangered in the Florida Keys. It is a small tree with very hard wood that withstands hurricanes easily. The growth is more wide than tall and can reach 20 or more feet overall.
The one inch deep blue flowers are followed by a one inch round yellow pod that contains black seeds covered by a deep red aril or leathery coating. These dangle from the pod when ripe. The whole plant can be covered in red and yellow during this fruiting time. The lyside sulphur butterfly, of the Florida Keys, larvals on this plant and catbirds eat the fruit.
Lignum vitae can grow in dry soils with some organic matter up to Palm Beach County and will tolerate some salt air, yet no salt water flooding. It is surprisingly tolerant of cold air down to near freezing.
Lignum vitae has a trunk like a bonsai and can live for thousands of years. The wood is full of resin and was once used for the bearings of boat propeller shafts due to its self lubricating properties. Growth rate is about two feet a year. The related Creosote Bush of the American deserts can live for 11 thousand years or more, click for more info.
I love to use this tree near the entranceway to the homes I landscape. Just take out that stupid Pygmy Date Palm that developers put in front of all new homes during the 1980’s and plant a Lignum Vitae in it’s place. Plant Quailberry under it and Key Thatch, Silver Palm, Joewood, Rhacoma, Coontie and other Keys plants near it; but don’t crowd it. This will be the most beautiful plant on your property and must not be hidden by other plants.
Laurel oak is often found on the edge of wetlands and needs a deep moist soil to look its best. It is mistakenly planted on dry berms where it often looks stressed. Laurel Oak grows fast and can reach a height of over 60 feet. Its straight trunk and smooth mottled bark give this tree a stately look yet it is said that they live for only 60 years.
The Sand Laurel Oak lives longer and grows to 115 feet tall. This is found growing in dry upland soil in Central and North Florida. Highlands Hammock State Preserve is a good place to see this similar looking oak. click for more info
Laurel Oak, also known as Swamp Laurel Oak, is a deep rooted tree that does very well in hurricanes unless it has been planted over a hardpan or other root limiting feature. Any large tree planted in the narrow spaces and shallow soil of a parking lot will fall over in high winds.
The acorns are a major food source for a variety of wildlife and the leaves are the larval food for the red banded hairstreak, Horace’s Duskywing and other butterflies.
Oak leaves and acorns are eaten by a variety of insects that are an important food source for the young of nesting birds. The branches often hide the nests of squirrels whose young become food for our hawks and owls. When looking for migratory birds in the spring and fall, just sit under an oak and you will be rewarded shortly. Tiny birds like the Warblers, Vireos, and Thrushes will appear as they move through the branches picking at insects.
Laurel oak can be used as a tall specimen in the front yard or mixed with Red Maple, Cypress, Slash Pine, live Oak, Dahoon hHolly and other wetland species in moist soil conditions. Short term flooding is OK. Make sure that the soil is deep and the roots can spread out and anchor the tree.
Lancewood is a small tree with six inch lance shaped leaves that tolerates deep shade until the canopy opens and sets it free to reach 30 feet or more in height. Lancewood’s spread is about the same as the height and is perfect for shady areas of the yard or to provide shade in a small area.
The fragrant white flowers are followed by a one inch oval fruit that is attached to a yellow or red cup, making this a very attractive tree when in fruit. This fruit is a small avocado, which it is related to along with Redbay, that attracts birds and squirrels. The leaves have a spicy aroma with a short curved petiole that helps in identifying this plant.
Lancewood can be found naturally from the Keys up to Volusia County along the coast. It grows back of the dune where it is protected from much salt air and water. This is a tough plant that needs average soil and is drought tolerant once established.
Lancewood is on the list of plants that get the newly established Laurel Wilt Disease which kills Redbays and Avocados. The idea is to hedge our bets and use susceptible plants far from the coast where this disease is spreading. After the disease has killed most of its hosts and diminishes, there will then be a seed source in homeowners’ yards to grow new plants from and reestablish these trees.
A planting of Gumbo Limbo, Paradise Tree, Mastic, Redbay, Live Oak, Black Ironwood, Pigeon Plum, Satinleaf, Wild Tamarind and Blolly mixed with Lancewood will make a very shady yard with no grass and no weeds. Use Marlberry, Wild Coffee, Native Plumbago, Snowberry, Basketgrass, Coastal Foxtail, Boston Fern and Beautyberry to fill the ground. Use wildflowers along the south edge for color.
Krug’s Holly or Tawnyberry is naturally found from Long Pine Key in Everglades Park to the Miami River following the Miami Rock Ridge. The leaves are around two inches long and elliptic. They turn black when dead, which is a good way to identify the plant. The white trunk is straight and may reach up to thirty feet tall. The branching is narrow which makes this a good tree for narrow spaces.
This is a very drought tolerant shrub or tree once established, yet it isn’t tolerant of salt air or salt water. Average soil is all that it needs, although good organic soil will produce a much more attractive plant.
The plants are male and female, so plant several near each other to ensure good bee pollination and lots of BB sizes berries. These turn from green to red to black and are very attractive to birds. A couple of berries may not cause harm but several may be poisonous, so keep these fruit out of the reach of small children. Always look up a plant to confirm if it is edible.
Krug’s Holly will look its best if allowed to grow naturally as a screen, specimen or when mixed with other understory shrubs. Try a combination of Tawnyberry with Florida Boxwood, Spanish Stopper, Marlberry, Myrsine, Myrtle of the River, Wild Coffee, Crabwood, Pineland Privet, Simpson Stopper and Tetrazygia bicolor.
This Key Deer is surrounded by Key Thatch in the Key Deer National Refuge.
Key Thatch is tolerant of salt air and some salt water flooding. Dry or moist fertile soil is best, although the plant must be fully established in order to take a long dry period. Key Thatch, also known as Brittle Thatch Palm and Silver Thatch Palm does well up to Palm Beach County. It is very slow growing and will take up to ten years to begin growing a trunk.
The leaves, which are dark green above and silvery white below, are three feet wide and six feet total length with the petiole. The total width of the palm may be six feet with drooping fronds coming off of the four inch diameter trunk. Trees in the wild may reach thirty feet, but this is rare.
The lovely palmate leaves, narrow trunk and bright white berries hanging from a long panicle make this a real texture enhancer for the landscape. Just when you tire of oval leaves, throw in a few Key Thatch and the landscape explodes. Birds and squirrels love the non poisonous fruit and bees visit the many small white flowers. The leaves are the caterpillar food for the Monk Skipper Butterfly.
Try a mixture of several Key Thatch along with Florida Thatch Palm, Silver Palm, Buccaneer Palm, Lignum Vitae, Joewood, Rhacoma, Quailberry, Lopsided Indian and Dwarf Fakahatchee Grass, Slash Pine, Locustberry, Cinnecord, Gumbo Limbo and other low wildflowers and Key plants. It can even take moderate shade along the edge of the planting.
Joewood is a very slow growing shrub or small tree of the Florida Keys. It grows from four to 10 feet tall in a round shape with interesting twisted branches, much like a bonsai, and has mottled white bark.
The flowers are very fragrant in creamy masses and occur during the summer. These are followed by pea sized yellow or orange red berries that are important wildlife food, yet may be poisonous to humans.
This hardy tree naturally occurs in the zone between the mangroves and hammock in the Florida Keys and is tolerant of salt air, short periods of salt water flooding and sandy or calcium rich soil.
Joewood grows well in Palm Beach County. Mix with any of the native Thatch Palms, Quailberry, Coontie, Lignum Vitae, Buccaneer Palm, rocks, or just gravel or mulch. It should be given good fertilizer, lots of sun and a rich organic soil to maximize its growth. This tree must be placed where it will be noticed and not hidden by other material.
When grown in the nursery, I find it difficult to produce a strong root system on this plant. Care must be taken to gently push it out of the pot and handle it carefully when placing it in the planting hole. Water and fertilize until established and it will become independent and beautiful.
Treat it well, and Joewood will become one of your most prized specimens.
