Jamaica Caper is native to coastal hardwood hammocks in full sun or partial to moderate shade. Deep, dry, fertile soil without clay or too much shell rock is preferred. This plant has a taproot and will rarely wilt once established.
The three inch pink, wispy flowers are followed by eight inch long pods that look like silver string beans. These ripen in August and September and open to reveal a bright orange pulp that covers the row of BB sized seeds.
Jamaica Caper makes a great specimen tree up to 30 feet tall and half that wide or an impressive mass planting if kept at least six feet tall. Jamaica Caper looks good as a hedge if fertilized or grown in rich soil.
Great for birds yet not tasty for humans. Try mixing with Wild Coffee, Marlberry, Beautyberry, Stoppers and other coastal themed plants. Jamaica Caper’s Christmas tree like growth makes it ideal for use in narrow spaces. The Florida White Butterfly uses this as a host plant.
This is one of my favorite native shrubs due to its colorful flowers, interesting orange pulped fruit and lush shiny green growth on the leaf surface with a silvery underside.
Indigo Berry is one of the toughest native plants available. This is found from the Florida Keys to Brevard County and withstands salt air, drought, and freezing temperatures. It likes soil with some organic matter and will not do well in white, sterile sandy soil. Not many plants do.
Indigo Berry can be grown as an eight foot specimen shrub or clipped as a two foot hedge. The shiny leaves are dark green and tough. Male and female plants are separate, yet both produce fragrant, small white flowers. The female plants produce half inch oval white berries with a brittle skin that contains an inky pulp with several flat seeds. Not tasty although a few can be eaten with no harm.
Birds eat the fruit and like to nest in the thick spiny branches. It is a larval food for the tantalus sphinx moth. There seems to be a varietal difference between the taller coastal plant and the shorter, compact one found in the pine rocklands.
Randia mixes well with coastal shrubs for a mixed hedge. The short form can be used to create a Keys theme. For this, try mixing with Coontie, Thrinax Palms, Ernodea, Slash Pines, Tetrazygia, Marlberry, Quailberry and Chapman’s Cassia. The small thorns make both forms a good security hedge that is uncomfortable to walk through.
The taller coastal form from north of the pine rocklands goes well with Beach Cocoplum, Sea Lavender, Wild Coffee, Cacti, Sea Oats, Beach Elder, Marlberry, Black Bead, myrsine, Native Scaevola, Beach Sunflower, Beach Verbena, Gaillardia and most other coastal plants. A mass of several Indigo Berry is very attractive.
There are two types of cocoplum. One occurs in wet, inland forests or the edge of swamps and the other which is called Horizontal or Beach Cocoplum is found on dunes and in scrub.
The tall inland form has dark purple or white fruit with sweet pulp and an edible nut and upright branches. These will grow to over 30 feet tall; the red tipped variety is most often used for hedges.
The “Horizontal” variety branches horizontally and has 1.5 inch fruit that is white with a pink blush and sweeter pulp. The nut is larger than the inland variety and tasty.
Horizontal Cocoplum or Beach Cocoplum grows in dry soil and makes a great ground cover, although it needs yearly trimming to keep it from mounding eventually to eight feet. It needs fertilizer and some extra watering for up to two years to establish and fill in.
Horizontal Cocoplum fruit is a good food for birds and mammals and is refreshing to eat while on long walks in the dry scrub or dune environments.
A natural mix includes Saw Palmetto, Sea Lavender, Cacti, Coontie, Key Lily, Beach Elder, Native Scaevola, Indigo Berry, and Bay Cedar. Also mix with Sea Oats, Dune Sunflower, Beach Verbena, Red Salvia and Southern Beebalm.
Hercules’ Club is the best attractor of giant swallowtail butterflies. This large butterfly lays its eggs, which grow into a large caterpillar that looks like a bird dropping, on the young leaves. You will have several of these giant swallowtail butterflies in your yard if you have this wonderful 12 foot tree on the property.
You will need several trees, which are dioecious, in order to have seed form on the female plants. These are eaten by cardinals and other seed eating birds. The leaves have a tangy flavor that if chewed will numb your mouth. The other name of Toothache Bush comes from this property. It is not poisonous, but should not be eaten, just tasted.
Hercules’ Club is found along the coast and in scrub and dry pastureland throughout the Southeast. It can take freezing weather, dry soil and low amounts of salt spray. It is covered with sharp, straight spines which turn into corky looking nubs on the trunks. It will sucker a bit, but the extra plants can be removed easily.
Even though this seems like a dangerous plant to have around, its upright growth and up to 30 foot height make it easy to limb up and keep the branches away from people. The thorns can be easily clipped off too as there are not very many of them. Compared to Wild Lime, which is the other host for the Giant Swallowtail butterfly and has cat claw like thorns, this is much safer.
The compound, shiny leaves are a bit like Brazilian Pepper yet much more attractive. When designing a butterfly garden, I like to hide the Hercules Club inside a mass of other plants like Firebush, Wild Coffee, Saw Palmetto or anything that will keep people away from it. Once it is tall though, the lower branches can be trimmed and this beautiful, knobby trunked tree can be one of your most interesting specimens.
It will need full sun, so plant it with sun loving plants like Button Sage, Bloodberry, Beautyberry, Firebush, and other caterpillar hosts like Chapman’s Cassia, Red Bay, Coontie, Hackberry, Wild Lime (which needs lots of space), Native Plumbago and Short Leaf Fig. Maybe just plant wildflowers beneath it to keep people away until it can be limbed up.
Hackberry is native to the eastern and central U.S. and most of the East Coast down to Dade County Florida. Hackberry will grow in all but the most infertile soils and tolerates occasional flooding for short periods. It will not grow where it gets much salt breeze or water.
Hackberry, also known as Sugarberry or Southern Hackberry, is found inland in moist hammocks. The east side of Lake Okeechobee has 60 foot tall Hackberrys mixed with 80 foot Mastic and Bald Cypress, Red Mulberry and Live Oak. There is an understory of Wild Coffee, Marlberry, Graytwig, White Stopper, Native Boston Fern, Coastal Foxtail and Wild Plumbago. If you want to see this tree in a natural setting, just walk the Port Mayaca Trail where Route 76 ends at the lake.
If you go during the spring, keep a look out for the American snout, tawny emperor and question mark butterflies which lay their eggs on young Hackberry leaves. In the fall, migrating birds eat the sweet, edible to humans too, small berries. Local and migrating birds and other wildlife can find fruit, insects and young leaves to eat on this tree all year long.
Leaves drop in the fall making the fruit more visible to wildlife. Lobate lac scale sucks the sap from the stems and leaves and drops their waste onto the leaves below. This will cause a blackening of the foliage which is shed and replaced with clean new growth each spring. Hopefully a predator of this introduced pest that feeds on many plant species will be released soon to control it. Some suckering may occur, which is fine in an open area, yet may need control in a tight spot.
A portion of the yard with deciduous trees like Hackberry, Pond or Bald Cypress, Red Maple, Red Mulberry, Florida Elm and Winged Sumac will give fall color and vibrant spring growth. There are also interesting corky knobs on the trunk of Hackberry that make this tree easily identifiable from a distance.
Gumbo Limbo is a fast growing tree up to 60 feet tall. The red or green peeling bark is attractive and mixes well with Simpson Stopper, Pigeon Plum and Soldierwood that also have peeling bark.
Gumbo Limbo is native from the Keys, following the coastline, to Brevard Co. It likes average to dry soil and is tolerant of salt air, yet not inundation by salt water for long periods.
The red covered seeds are eaten by the great crested flycatcher in the spring and the leaves are a food source for the larva of the Dingy Purplewing butterfly which occurs in the Keys. The sticky sap was once used as “Bird Lime” or glue to catch small birds by ancient peoples. The wood was also used for the animals on merry go rounds.
For a coastal hardwood hammock theme, this is one of the best trees to start with. Buy plants grown from seedlings, which have better growth structure than rooted branches and survive hurricanes better.
This is because seedlings naturally grow upward and bend over in an arc. Branches then form on the opposite side of the arc to fill out the tree. During a hurricane, the top branches are sheared leaving little for the wind to catch and saving the tree trunk which soon grows new branches.
Mix with an understory of Wild Coffee, Firebush, Coontie, Wild Plumbago, Jamaica Caper and Marlberry. Build the canopy with other hammock trees including Pigeon Plum, Mastic, Paradise Tree, Wild Tamarind, Jamaica Dogwood, Red Bay, Live Oak, Soldierwood, Bahama Strongbark and Blolly.
The Spiraling Whitefly was a new problem on this and other plants recently. It did not kill these trees and it even provided food for migrating warblers. An insect that preys on this pest has been introduced and has killed most of these insects leaving the trees clean and green again.
The Florida Thatch Palm is also known as Green Thatch Palm and is primarily native to the Monroe County Keys. It is the fastest growing of the three native thrinax palms and will develop a six foot or more trunk in just twenty years. The Key Thatch and Silver Palms will barely have two foot trunks in this amount of time.
The leaf blades are three feet across and have no silver or white on the underside. The leaf petiole is three feet long which means the tip of the leaflets extend four to six feet out from the trunk. When it has developed enough clear trunk, in about five years, other low plants like Coontie, Quailberry, Snowberry and low wildflowers can be planted underneath. Otherwise, just keep the area under the plant mulched.
Florida Thatch Palm will tolerate some salt air but not much salt water flooding. The stalks of white flowers attract butterflies and honey bees. These are followed by many quarter inch round white berries that squirrels won’t leave alone until gone. It is not hard to find twenty foot tall specimens growing in landscapes and natural areas of the Keys. Many are grown in Palm Beach County and beyond.
Do to its tolerance of some shade, this palm can be mixed into the interior of a hammock planting. Try one to several as an understory to Gumbo Limbo, Mastic, Paradise Tree, Pigeon Plum and other tall trees. Make sure it has room to grow upward without hitting a branch and plant low hammock shrubs ten feet away. This will allow the other plants to fill out and not crowd the palms.
In areas of full sun to partial shade, the Florida Thatch Palm can be mixed with the other native Thrinax Palms, Buccaneer palms, Sabal Palms and a backdrop of Blue Saw Palmetto. This gives a real Florida Keys or Bahamas look to the yard. It is also the larval food of the Monk Skipper butterfly.
This vine is known as Chiggery Grapes, but I refuse to use this horrifying name and have renamed it Florida Gooseberry. This is a long lived vine found primarily in Dade, Monroe, Collier and Hendry Counties. I have personally found it within the Fakahatchee Strand in Collier County. It will grow at least 30 feet up into a supporting tree and then cascade down.
In the spring, clusters of white flowers hang from the branch tips. These attract many butterflies and other insects. Clusters of clear white quarter inch berries follow which bring in many birds and squirrels. The plant is in the borage family which often contains alkaloids that male Queen and Soldier butterflies lap up from the flowers and rotting fruit and leaves to be converted into scents that attract their mates. These berries are not poisonous or tasty.
The leaves of Florida Gooseberry are oval with a blunt tip, about six inches long and hairy. The main stem may become three inches in diameter over time and can easily survive for many years. We have several on our property that are over 20 years old. Few seedlings come up on there own and the plant does not sucker. It is not salt tolerant, but very drought tolerant and generally takes care of itself after just a few initial waterings when first planted.
On our property, it is planted next to a Live Oak along with a Multiflora Passionvine. Both have grown 30 feet up the tree and cascade down to form a carpet of larval food and nectar for Zebra Longwings and Julia butterflies. This mass has persisted for twenty years so far. It is “Alive” with insects, birds and squirrels most of the year but especially in the spring.
If you decide to plant this on a fence, you will need to cut it back every few months to keep it in bounds. It mixes well with Multiflora Passionvine, Corky Passionvine, Jacquemontia, Native Allamanda and Coral Honeysuckle.
Years from now, I want to be remembered as the person who changed the name of this wonderful plant.
Florida Elm may reach over fifty feet with a spreading crown. This southern variety of American Elm can be found in Martin, St. Lucie, Lee and Collier Counties. It is associated with moist inland hammocks mixed with Hackberry, Oaks, Slash Pine, Mulberry and Maple. It does not get Dutch Elm Disease.
The leaves of Florida Elm drop in late fall and the plant remains leafless until flowers and seeds form in early spring. The seeds are eaten by Painted Buntings and other birds and the young leaves are a larval food for the Question Mark Butterfly.
Florida Elm is easy to grow in average Palm Beach County soils and most likely south of there. If the soil is moist, an understory planting of Wild Coffee, Marlberry, Beautyberry, Saw Palmetto, Giant Leather Fern and shade tolerant grasses and low ferns will produce a pleasing effect. A bed of native Swamp, or Marsh Fern makes a nice understory just by themselves.
Although most people don’t like trees that lose their leaves, you may find the leafless tree in winter reminds you of the cool weather up north. Even though it may be 86 degrees out in mid November, standing under a leafless Florida Elm will make you feel almost cold.
Florida Boxwood is endangered and is found only in the upper Florida Keys and southern Dade County near Brickell Hammock. It may reach twenty feet but normally is below ten feet tall. Individual plants are male or female with the female plants producing berries that change from green to yellow to orange and finally bright red. These small BB sized berries are fought over by mockingbirds and shared among small migrating birds.
According to George Gann, from the Center For Regional Conservation, the berries are not poisonous, yet I found them bitter. The related Quailberry and Rhacoma have edible berries.
Florida Boxwood is very drought tolerant once established yet it is not tolerant of salt air or water. Average soil and full sun are best. This is a slow grower that needs little care once up to the desired height and makes a great, light green clipped hedge with two inch narrow leaves. It is a member of the bittersweet family like Quailberry and Rhacoma.
The plants fruit in early fall, which is perfectly timed to provide food for hungry migrating birds. Jamaica Caper, Firebush, Beautyberry, Slash Pine and Simpson Stoppers are also fruiting at this time. Many of our native grasses like Coastal Foxtail, Lopsided Indian Grass, Love Grass, Basketgrass and the Witch Grasses are starting to go to seed, just as the Painted Buntings arrive in early October.
Plant a grouping of Florida Boxwood in order to have male and female plants and mix with other low shrubs. These can be Blackbead, Pineland Strongbark, Pineland Privet, Beach Cocoplum, Firebush, Saw Palmetto, Wild Coffee and Indigo Berry for a drought tolerant mix that can be kept low and rounded and will provide food for your local and migrating birds. Never square your plants!
