General Landscape Uses: Accent shrub in the Florida Keys. Also buffer plantings.

Description: Medium shrub or rarely a small tree with a rounded crown. Bark pale gray or whitish. Leaves smooth, dark green, about 1-2 inches long.

Dimensions: About 8-12 feet in height or rarely more. Usually about as broad as tall.

Growth Rate: Slow.

Range: Monroe County Keys; Bahamas and Cuba. In the Monroe County Keys, native from Big Pine Key to Key West. For a digitized image of Elbert Little’s Florida range map, visit the Exploring Florida website.

Habitats: Rockland hammocks.

Soils: Moist, well-drained limestone soils, with humusy top layer.

Nutritional Requirements: Moderate; can grow in nutrient poor soils, but needs some organic content to thrive.

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

Salt Wind Tolerance: Moderate; grows near salt water, but is protected from direct salt spray by other vegetation.

Drought Tolerance: Moderate; generally requires moist soils, but tolerant of short periods of drought once established.

Light Requirements: Full sun.

Flower Color: Greenish-white.

Flower Characteristics: Inconspicuous. Fragrant. Dioecious, with make and female flowers on different plants.

Flowering Season: Spring-summer; peak in spring.

Fruit: Rounded capsule.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed.

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

Comments: It closely resembles cocoplum (Chrysobalanus icaco). It is listed as threatened by the state of Florida. See also Florida Natural Areas Inventory’s Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Florida page (Chafin 2000).