Firebush is a coffee relative that has red tubular flowers for all but the coldest months and berries that go from yellow, to orange, to red and finally black in late summer and most of the winter.
Firebush is naturally found in coastal and inland hammocks through South and Central Florida and prefers rich soils with organic matter and low levels of wind. Hummingbirds and butterflies visit the flowers and many birds including the cedar waxwings and catbirds eat the fruit.
The berries are edible yet not very tasty and the nectar is sweet when sucked from the flower; kids love this. To maintain at a low height, simply cut back to between ground level and two feet once a year. If not trimmed, it becomes a 15 foot shrub which can be limbed up to produce thick vertical branches to allow easy passage underneath. Place a birdbath and feeder nearby; six feet of clear trunk will prevent cats from surprising your birds.
The non native Hamelia patens variety glabra, sold as “compacta,” “African” or “Dwarf Firebush” from Central America is now what you will find sold as the native Firebush in most garden centers. The leaves lack the slight hairiness of the native and feel like rubber. If the leaves grow off the stem in groups of three or four, it is native and if there are four or five in a whorl, it is the non native. Frustratingly, these characteristics often overlap.
The non native Firebush has a more yellow flower, grows into an ugly 20 foot tall mess with fewer flowers than the native and less wildlife attracted to it. It also hybridizes with the native so that seed spread by birds is often not the true native. It may seem silly to worry about this but we could lose our native plant to the rapidly escaping hybrids.
I like to use several masses of Firebush in a landscape to give the hummingbirds a feeding route to follow. There used to be bumblebees found on Firebush, but they have disappeared in South Florida recently. When planting a butterfly and hummingbird garden, use Firebush as a backdrop and to shield people from thorny larval hosts like Hercules Club, Wild Lime, Catclaw and Blackbead.
Full sun is best and stay away from soil toxin producing trees like Black Olive. Add Pavonia, Red Salvia, Necklacepod, Goldenrod, Verbena, Bluecurls and other wildflowers for nectar. Plant Chapman’s Cassia, Redbay, Hercules Club, Corky Passionvine, Milkweed and native grasses for larval foods.
Fiddlewood is found along the coast from the Upper Keys to Brevard county. It is an arching, medium size shrub along the coast, yet may become a 30 foot tree in protected inland sites. The reddish brown to gray bark becomes furrowed with age.
Fiddlewood is very tolerant of salt air yet is wind sheared along the coast. It can be occasionally attacked by moth larva which shred the leaves and white fly which blacken the plant. The moth larvae become food for wildlife and the plant always grows back. The whitefly may need to be sprayed. If clouds of tiny white insects fly out when the tree is shaken, you have whitefly.
Small dioecious white flowers occur on thin drooping spikes and give off a sweet fragrance. The pea sized berries turn golden when ripe and become dried and black before falling; so no messy berries. Birds eat the fruit and butterflies visit the flowers. The fruit is sweet and edible to humans. When planted inland, use as a small 12 foot tree with a single trunk or prune to make bushy. It can even by planted close to the doorway to provide fragrance as you come and go.
Fiddlewood is one of the most drought tolerant native trees or shrubs that establishes very quickly in average to dry soil. It looks nice coming out of a mass of Saw Palmetto and Beautyberry or mixed with Wild Lime, Firebush, Wild Coffee, Jamaica Caper, Spanish Stopper and other coastal shrubs. It does not make a square hedge though due to its sprawling growth.
False Indigobush is also known as Bastard Indigobush…this is a real selling point. It is found throughout North America to Palm Beach County. In our area I have only found it near the Loxahatchee and St. Lucie rivers, although I’m sure it is near other local rivers.
It likes moist soil that doesn’t flood for long and makes a nice six to eight foot tall thicket with sparkly purple flowers on a moderate number of six inch long tail like racemes. These are most abundant in the spring.
The hard thistle like seeds are eaten by birds and the foliage is the larval food for the silver spotted skipper and southern dogface butterflies. The dogface is not a local butterfly though.
Full sun to partial shade and a moderately rich soil are required, yet it can be surprisingly drought tolerant once established. The feathery compound foliage of False Indigobush is a nice break in texture and can be planted near a window to give a “country” look and break up a dull foundation planting.
Plant a mass if you have a wet area of the yard or mix it in with Saw Palmetto, Buttonbush, Willow, Wax Myrtle, Beautyberry, Spartina Grass, Cypress, Red Maple and other wetland species.
Elderberry is often found in moist soil along the edge of wetlands of the East Coast down to Dade County. It will not tolerate long periods of flooding and must be protected from salt air and water. Growth is from 8-20 feet coming from multiple canes. Root suckers are common so give it an area where it can expand.
The white heads of flowers provide nectar for pollinators and can be dipped in batter and fried. The clusters of black berries are tasty and make a good juice or wine. The leaves and other parts of the plant are poisonous. It is suggested that if you drink over a cup of the juice, you cook it briefly first.
Plant along a lake edge, out of the reach of flooding, or near your cypress swamp or other low, moist areas. The soil must not dry out for long. Catbirds and others love the fruit and will stay near Elderberry when it is fruiting during the winter months.
Mix Elderberry with Wax Myrtle, Salt Bush, Slash Pine, Carolina Willow, Red Maple, Sweet Gum, Florida Elm or just the sunny edge of a wetland habitat for an attractive mass planting.
Hollies are what people think of when they hear the word “dioecious”. This simply means that each plant has either male or female flowers. The female flower has a small swelling (ovary) at the base and no orange anthers on the end of the stamens.
By planting three or more dahoon hollies in a cluster, you will be sure to have at least one male to ensure pollination and lots of red berries with viable seed inside. You can always remove all but one male. Female plants will produce berries, but without a male plant nearby, the seed will be infertile.
Dahoon Holly is found along the edge of swamps from the keys throughout the Southeastern US Coast. It prefers moist, acid soils where it may receive short term flooding yet will tolerate drought. Dahoon Holly grows to 30 or more feet and can be easily kept at 15 feet or less. It will tolerate a small amount of salt air and very little salt water flooding.
If there is a wet area in your yard, try planting a group of Dahoon hollies mixed with Pond Apple, Bald or Pond Cypress, Swamp Redbay, Red Maple, Button Bush, Swamp Fern, and other wetland species. The trunk becomes clear of branches and white with red lichen as the tree gets taller. A small grove of Dahoon Holly with a path going through it and a bench to sit on can be a magical part of the yard.
The small berries ripen in early fall and are a major food source for birds and other animals. The fruit are not poisonous to humans yet not tasty.
Crabwood, which is also called Oysterwood, is found in coastal hammocks throughout the Florida Keys and Dade County and has a small population in Palm Beach County.
This is a round tree that grows to 25 feet with four inch oval leaves and catkins of small green male or reddish female flowers. The wind pollinated Male and female flowers are separate on the same plant. When dry, the half inch rounded pod splits and scatters three small seeds.
These are not an important food for birds yet the leaves are a larval food for the Florida purplewing butterfly in the Keys. Numerous seedlings will come up after a good fruiting year.
The burgundy new growth is beautiful and the moderate size and round shape make this a good front yard tree. Mix Crabwood with other hammock species. Tall Paradise, Mastic, Live Oak and Pigeon Plum can be planted within ten feet while lower and bushy Jamaica Caper, Black Ironwood, Marlberry, Stoppers and Lancewood will need their own space of 10-20 feet from Crabwood.
This small tree can be trimmed low and makes a great, rounded hedge in parking lots and other harsh environments with heat and poor soil. Please don’t square any hedge plant, it just ruins the appearance. Protect from direct salt air and flooding.
Coralbean is a member of the bean family with two inch long red tubular flowers in the spring followed by six inch pods with red poisonous seeds inside. It grows normally to eight feet, but can reach 20 or more feet. The branches and trifoliate leaves have curved thorns; fortunately the plant is upright and can be given a moderate amount of space to avoid them. It also makes a good barrier plant.
Found normally in dry pinelands, scrub and coastal dunes from the Keys through the Southeastern US, Coralbean is one of the most drought tolerant plants available. It can tolerate salt air and some salt water flooding, yet I have seen it tolerate fresh waterlogged soils for long periods of time.
Plant this where it can either stand as an accent plant or mix with other plants like Saw Palmetto, Wild Coffee, Firebush, Blackbead, Beautyberry and other plants that will shield the public from the thorns. In northern areas it is frozen to the ground and sends up beautiful red flower spikes in the spring. You can cut the plant to the ground each winter to mimic this effect and keep the plant low. Make sure to remove the developing seed pods if there are children in the area; the seeds, again, are poisonous.
Hummingbirds nectar on the red tubular flowers which makes this a great plant for a hummingbird attracting garden when mixed with Necklacepod, Firebush, Pavonia, Bahama Strongbark, Salvia, and Dicliptera.
Cinnecord is a very rare native shrub found in upper Key Largo. It can be a bit invasive if planted outside its range, yet nothing that requires much work to control. This is a tall shrub up to 20 feet that makes a nice specimen. In spring it is full of half inch round fragrant yellow flowers growing in clusters.
The three inch long, oblong seed pods have small brown seeds inside that are held together by a white aril that attracts bats for dispersal. There are many Cinnecord plants in the Bahamas and many bats too, yet few bats in South Florida. This may be why the seeds are usually found near the parent plant and not spread throughout the Keys.
Due to its spreading habit, you may want to give Cinnecord its own space and not crowd it with other trees. A grove of Cinnecord is attractive and mimics the colonies found in nature. It unfortunately is not great for wildlife, but is interesting, rare and very drought tolerant with a moderate amount of salt tolerance.
Plant it twenty feet from a Lignum Vitae, Buccaneer Palms, the Thatch Palms and other tree species. Then under plant with Chapman’s Cassia, Key Lilies, Coonties, Native Porterweed, Necklacepod, Snowberry, Sea Lavender, Rhacoma-Maidenbush, Wild Sage and low wildflowers.
Cinnamon Bark is one of the most beautiful small trees in South Florida. The bluish oval leaves are three inches long with a pungent cinnamon smell and flavor. The inner bark can be used as a cinnamon replacement, yet the outer bark is poisonous. Hold the leaf a foot or two away when crushing it for the smell or you may end up sneezing as the oils fill the air.
As a single tree, Cinnamon Bark is a bit sparse, yet when grown as triples or more it is full and dense. It takes a few years until the red flowers and red berries are produced, but your patience is rewarded with a fantastic mass of color. The clusters of pea sized berries will attract many birds and give the tree a holly like appearance.
Cinnamon Bark will usually grow to 16 feet or less, yet may reach thirty feet in the wilds where old trees are found. The soil should be rich and can have occasional short term saltwater flooding. Drought tolerance is excellent once established and it can be planted in the back of a coastal hammock where some salt air will reach it.
The natural range is from the coastal hammocks of South Dade County to Key West. It will tolerate a fair amount of cold and can easily be grown in Eastern Palm Beach County. Try building a coastal hammock hedge with Cinnamon Bark, Bitterbush, Wild Coffee, Marlberry, Myrsine, Bahama Wild Coffee, Bahama Strongbark, Myrtle of the River, Jamaica Caper, Indigo Berry and Simpson, Spanish, White and Redberry Stoppers. These are all upright and compact and won’t push each other out.
Christmas Berry is naturally found in moist to wet soil near salt water bays in the Florida Keys to South Carolina. The half inch, bright red berries, which can cause vomiting, ripen in winter and are used by many species of birds and other wildlife. These follow the lilac flowers that occur most of the year, yet abundantly in late summer.
Plants loaded with berries can be found in Cedar Key, which is west of Gainesville, Florida. I have not found ones so full of red berries anywhere else. These berries are shaped like little Tomatoes and tiny Red Peppers.
This makes a nice accent bush or mass, growing up to six feet tall, with one inch narrow leaves and thorns that prevent trespassers. The soil must be fertile with organic matter and moist or the plant will die out. Full sun is best.
If you are looking for an evergreen shrub with masses of red or orange berries, this is a great choice. It can be trimmed by hand to keep a nice compact shape or just let it grow in its natural weeping form.
A mixture of Christmas Berry, Sea Oxeye Daisy, Spartina Grasses, Sea Purslane, Bitter Panicum, Seashore Dropseed and other marsh plants will make a beautiful planting that will tolerate salt water flooding.
Please do not allow children to eat the colorful fruit.
The IFAS link below misstates that the fruit are six inches long; they are one half inch long.
