General Landscape Uses: Informal groundcover or low-climbing vine.

Description: Low climbing herbaceous vine with extremely variable leaves.

Dimensions: N/A; a vine with stems to 2 feet or more in length. Sometimes spreading horizontally and forming large open or dense patches.

Growth Rate: Fast.

Range: Monroe County Keys north to Duval, Lake and Dixie counties; West Indies, Texas, Mexico, Central America and South America.

Habitats: Moist forests and pinelands.

Soils: Moist, well-drained sandy or limestone soils, with or without humusy top layer.

Nutritional Requirements: Moderate to low; it prefers soils with organic content, but will still grow reasonably well in nutrient poor soils.

Salt Water Tolerance: Low; does not tolerate long-term flooding by salt or brackish water.

Salt Wind Tolerance: High; can tolerate moderate amounts of salt wind without significant injury.

Drought Tolerance: High; does not require any supplemental water once established.

Light Requirements: Light shade to full sun.

Flower Color: Greenish to yellowish.

Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy but small. Petals are absent.

Flowering Season: All year.

Fruit: Purple-black globose berry. Edible.

Wildlife and Ecology: Larval host plant for gulf fritillary (Agraulis vanillae), julia (Dryas iulia) and zebra longwing (Heliconius charitonius) butterflies. Attracts bee pollinators.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed. Smash mature fruit on paper towel or place in blender with water and grind just enough to break up the berries; strain and place on paper towel. When dry, scrape seed onto surface of soil. Do not cover. Place containter in light shade.

References: Miami-Dade County Landscape Manual (2005).

Comments: One of the best larval host plants for butterflies.