![]() This flowering vine is easy to grow, rewarding you with big stunning three- to five-inch flowers in shades of lavender or purple, with a wavy fringe. ![]() Handsome gray bark is almost white on some plants. Pale blue berries appear on female plants in the winter. Its light olive green foliage has a spicy fragrance. Need a great privacy hedge? Check out Southern Wax Myrtle, a multi-trunked evergreen shrub that grows 6-12 feet tall. If you're short on space, the dwarf Fakahatchee only grows to two to three feet tall. More butterfly news: it’s the larval food plant for the Byssus Skipper butterfly.īonus: there are both regular and dwarf varieties. It works well as an accent plant or plant it as a border. The leaves have small, sharp teeth along their edges. This native’s tall, green, grass-like foliage rises upright to form clumps between 4 and 6 feet tall and wide, offering great texture to your landscape. What’s up with all these cool native Florida plant names? And it’s the favorite food of the larvae of the rare Atala butterfly.ĭrought hardy, cold hardy, rare butterfly food - the Coontie is a keeper. It has stiff, glossy, featherlike leaves attached to a thick, short, underground stem. It looks like a small fern, about one to three feet tall. These primitive plants were common during the dinosaur age, which is a fun and impressive fact to share at your backyard parties. Native milkweeds are crucial to other important pollinators, too, including bumble bees. But milkweed is disappearing in the monarch’s spring and summer breeding areas across the U.S., which means the vibrant butterflies are in danger. Milkweed is actually the required host plant for caterpillars of the monarch butterfly, so it plays a critical role in the monarch’s life cycle. It’s a butterfly magnet.įlorida is home to more than 20 species of milkweed, and almost all of them are native Florida plants. Love butterflies? Then you’ll love milkweed. The lighting should be as bright and sunny as you can find in your garden, to maximize this beauty’s glow. Plant several together, spaced at least 2 feet apart, for a real show. There’s also a white variety of Muhly Grass called ‘White Cloud’ with billowing white plumes. Known for its extreme drought tolerance, growing Muhly Grass is easy and requires little maintenance or upkeep. There are several types of Muhly Grass but the real show stopper is Pink Muhly, which explodes in spectacular soft, fuzzy pink flowers in the fall that glow in the sunlight.Ī fairy princess plant like this must be fussy, right? Nope. Here’s a look at some of the best native plants for Central Florida: 1. Choose the right native plants, and you offer a tasty buffet of seeds, nuts, and fruits for birds and small critters, nectar for hummingbirds and butterflies, host plants for butterfly caterpillars. Wild critters are in trouble as their natural habitats disappear. Once they’re established, native plants typically need less water than non-natives.Native plants and trees love where they live, so they grow well and they’re not at all fussy.Unlike many non-native plants, native plants are hardy and stand up better to pests and diseases.So, what are the best native plants for Central Florida? First, The Beauty of Native Florida Trees and Plants Not all native Florida plants are as much fun to say, but there are lots of other great reasons to add these sturdy, drought-tolerant, and pretty plants to your landscape.įor one thing, Pink Muhly Grass is pink. This wood is used frequently in furniture but has other uses as well, including furniture, flooring, timber frame buildings, and even in the production of veneer.If you could plant something in your yard called Fakahatchee Grass, why wouldn’t you? But of course, the oak tree is most valued for its wood, which is thick and strong. The acorns are eaten by numerous animals, including deer and wild boar. Oak trees have unique nuts called acorns, which usually take 6 to 18 months to fully mature. Oak trees grow well in Florida because oaks do well in wet soils and lowland areas, and since 90 species of the oak tree can be found in the United States, you are certain to find lots of them in this part of the country. Swamp Chestnut Oak (quercus michauxii)įlorida is home to trees such as the birch, walnut, pine, cypress, cedar, palm, and of course, oak trees, among many others.
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