General Landscape Uses: Primarily recommended for natural landscapes and habitat restorations. Also butterfly gardens.

Ecological Restoration Notes: Common in pine rocklands in southerm Miami-Dade County; rare elsewhere.

Description: Small shrub. Leaves dark green above and silvery or coppery below.

Dimensions: Typically 1-3 feet in height. Often as broad as tall.

Growth Rate: Moderate to fast.

Range: Monroe County Keys north along the east coast to St. Lucie County, where presumed exirpated in the wild; West Indies. In the Monroe County Keys, apparently disjunct from Miami-Dade County to the pine rocklands of Big Pine Key and Little Pine Key.

Habitats: Pine rocklands, scrub and coastal thickets.

Soils: Moist, well-drained sandy or limestone soils, without humus.

Nutritional Requirements: Low; it grows in nutrient poor soils.

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

Light Requirements: Full sun.

Flower Color: White.

Flower Characteristics: Semi-showy.

Flowering Season: All year.

Fruit: Inconspicuous capsule with yellowish pubescence.

Wildlife and Ecology: Sole larval host plant for Bartram’s scrub-hairstreak (Strymon acis) and Florida leafwing (Anaea troglodyta floridalis) butterflies in South Florida. Nectar plant for baracoa skipper (Polites baracoa), Bartram’s scrub-hairstreak, cassius blue (Leptotes cassius), Florida duskywing (Ephyriades brunneus) and other butterflies.

Horticultural Notes: Can be grown from seed or cuttings. Soak seeds in water overnight andd sprinkle into a community pot, scattering a thin layer of soil over the seeds. Place in full sun. For excellent and detailed information on pineland croton propagation, see Fairchild Tropical Garden’s Connect To Protect fact sheet.

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

Comments: Recruits readily in the garden from seed, but is not weedy.