“Excellent as a specimen plant and for softening corners of houses and buildings. Works well in mixed shrub beds or as a small background shrub or tree. Especially suited for difficult locations like parking lots, medians, road and powerline right of ways, and the border of retention ponds, drainage swales, and canal banks. Can be pruned to maintain a smaller, more compact form.” Florida’s Best Native Landscape Plants 200 Readily Available Species for Homeowners and Professionals, by Gil Nelson, 2003, University Press of Florida, Page 230 This evergreen is naturally found in tree form in hammocks but in the landscape, in full sun, we typically see it in a full, dense shrub form, including as hedging or a screen as it tolerates pruning well. But as a specimen tree, the beautiful bark can be admired. Fragrant when flowering, this is another great wildlife attractor, offering fruits and cover for birds, and flowers for pollinators.


Photo by David Stang CC X SA 4.0


Photo by Roy Winkelman

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Photo by Cammie Donaldson