Endangered Wildflowers for Your North Florida Yard

The state of Florida is celebrated for its biodiversity, ranking sixth in the United States in total number of vascular plant species. Most of its rare plants are protected from human impact by federal law, specifically the 1973 Endangered Species Act (ESA), which currently protects 566 native plant species in Florida.

A species is declared “endangered” when it faces likely or imminent extinction. It is listed as “threatened” when extinction is likely if negative changes predicted to affect a large part of its range are not prevented. Of the 566 plant species currently listed for Florida, 448 are endangered and 118 are threatened. Fifty-four of these species are on the federal list of endangered plant species and 14 are on the federal list of threatened species. Florida also ranks among the top five states in endemic species, which are plants only found in our state and nowhere else in the world.

Conservation of these species’ hinges upon public education and awareness. Substantial efforts by federal, state, and local agencies have made Florida’s citizens better aware of the potential presence of these species, their rarity, and the need for their protection.

Endangered Wildflower Species

Monarch butterflies depend on wildflowers like Brickellia to fuel them during breeding and on their long migration. Photo by Elizabeth Georges.

Flyr’s Nemesis (Brickellia cordifolia)

Brickellia is well known for growing in full sun and sandy soil, however, I have started a patch in rich, moist woodland soil in a shady garden under a live oak, and it is flourishing. Late summer to early fall is when Brickellia blooms. This perennial wildflower can reach heights of three to four feet and produces disc flowers, not the typical ray flowers of other asters. At the end of each stem, it generates a large number of blooms in compact clusters. Each flower head has a wispy, spidery appearance due to its extraordinarily long styles. They are incredibly alluring to butterflies and range in color from nearly white to bright pink.

Although Brickellia is easy to grow and propagate, there is very little of it in the wild. There are some small, surviving populations in Wakulla, Jefferson, and Alachua counties and a few in Alabama and Georgia. It is on the state endangered list here in Florida and listed globally as a G2/G3 species (imperiled globally because of rarity or vulnerable to extinction throughout its range).

Columbine, with its nectar-filled red spurs, blooms just at the time that hummingbirds are returning from their winter sojourns in Central America and Mexico. Photo by Elizabeth Georges.

Marianna Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis var australis)

Columbine, with its nectar-filled red spurs, blooms just at the time that hummingbirds are returning from their winter sojourns in Central America and Mexico. Photo by Elizabeth Georges.

The only columbine endemic to Florida, this easily grown perennial wildflower is also an endangered subspecies. Although uncommon throughout the majority of the state, Marianna columbine is abundant in the Marianna region and can be seen at Florida Caverns State Park growing with trillium, bloodroot, and other spring ephemerals on limestone outcrops. It blooms in early spring, just in time for ravenous hummingbirds and butterflies that have just finished their migration.

Plant this rare wildflower in part sun to shade in rich, average to moist soils that have a high pH. To make the soil more alkaline and your columbines happy, you can add dolomite lime or place a limestone rock close to your plants. Foundations and certain walkways will also leech lime into the soil to increase pH.

Purple coneflowers are among the best native wildflowers to attract butterflies, native bees, and birds to our gardens. Photo by Donna Legare.

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)

While the purple coneflower is quite rare in Florida, it is widespread in the eastern half of North America. It is recognized as a state endangered species in Florida because it is only found in a small number of limestone glades in Gadsden County.

It is a robust, drought-tolerant perennial that can grow in both full and partial sun. It is resilient and simple to grow – not at all picky – but it does prefer well-drained, neutral to alkaline soil. Therefore, adding a little dolomite lime to our acidic Tallahassee soil is a good idea, unless you’re planting it in garden soil that has been improved over time with mushroom compost.

This magnificent wildflower will bloom continuously from summer till frost, providing you (and the pollinators) with months of enjoyment. As a member of the Asteraceae family, what appears to be a single flower is actually a flower head made up of numerous smaller flowers. The head of purple coneflower is orange and shaped like a cone, encircled by pinkish-purple petals that stand on erect stalks reaching two to five feet tall.

In the butterfly garden, pipevine is the sole food for the pipevine swallowtail caterpillars. Photo by Elizabeth Georges.

Pipevine (Aristolochia tomentosa)

This native woody vine is a host plant for the pipevine swallowtail butterflies. It thrives in part shade to full sun and grows vigorously, reaching 20 to 30 feet.

Pipevine has large heart-shaped leaves and grows wonderfully on a trellis, arbor, or fence. It prefers medium moisture, well-drained soil, and does not like to dry out. Overall, it’s a tough perennial and will reseed readily in your butterfly garden.

Chipola coreopsis is a great groundcover for partial shade that pollinators love. Photo by Elizabeth Georges.

Chipola Coreopsis (Coreopsis integrifolia)

This coreopsis is quite rare in Florida, listed as a state endangered species and vouchered only in five counties, all along the Georgia border. It can be found in floodplain wetlands along blackwater streams, where it receives lots of moisture and dappled shade.

Florida is home to 15 species of coreopsis, and they can sometimes be a bit tricky to differentiate. Chipola coreopsis is an evergreen perennial that forms basal rosettes in spring that can spread in all directions by underground rhizomes. By late summer into fall, the stems eventually reach a mature height of two feet with multiple bright yellow bloom stalks. It is an attractive wildflower that also functions as a mat-like groundcover that can form stunning masses of color and contrast.

We invite you to learn more about endangered wildflowers by growing some of them in your own yard. Preserving these plants, whether in their natural setting or a more monitored environment, is very important and can be rewarding as you are taking part in real conservation at home. For some of these species, it could very well be their greatest chance for a future in our state.

Coontie, a Graceful Addition to the Garden

Coontie is one of my favorite plants. It is an evergreen cycad, growing to about 3 feet tall and is native to the Florida peninsula. Its natural habitat is dominated by pines growing on well drained sandy to sandy-loam soil. Coontie is a great choice as a foundation plant because it never needs pruning. It grows as broad as it is tall and can tolerate full sun or deep shade, but I think it is happiest in filtered shade.

When we first moved to our home, the lovely brick foundation was completely covered by boxwoods and azaleas that needed a lot of pruning. We removed them all. We planted two coonties flanking the front steps leading to the porch and front door. I had heard they were slow growing, so I fertilized them with organic fertilizer.

They surprised me by growing fairly quickly and I do not attribute the growth rate completely to the fertilizer. Rather, the soil conditions created by the limey cement walkway and brick and mortar foundation and steps seem perfect for coontie. Ferns also like it in this soil; we have a nice stand of maidenhair fern and leatherwood fern growing along this north facing brick foundation.

We also planted two coontie under our huge live oak tree to give an evergreen presence among the woodland wildflowers that come and go throughout the year. They are so graceful looking and did I mention they don’t need pruning?

Every year the female plants produce brown cones that are composed of fleshy bright orange seeds when the cone ripens. Some animal must be eating them, perhaps an opossum, because these coonties are spreading up hill; we find new seedlings regularly.

Coontie, once established, is drought tolerant. It is rated moderately salt tolerant – tolerant of salt winds but not of salt water. It is cold hardy to 15 degrees F. In south Florida, it is the sole larval food plant of the atala butterfly which brings us to a bit of history about coontie.

All parts of coontie are poisonous; however Florida’s early inhabitants, both the Timucuan and Calusa peoples figured out how to remove the toxin cycasin from the large starchy tuber that grows underground. The Seminoles learned the technique of maceration and washing from the earlier people and made it into bread. The common name coontie is derived from the Seminole phrase “conti hateka” which means white root or white bread.

By the 1880s, settlers created mills in Miami to process this starch and by 1911 it became known as Florida arrowroot. During WWI one mill processed up to 18 tons daily for military purchase. Needless to say, coontie was over exploited and to this day little remains in its native habitat. (Probably little of its habitat remains either.).This did not bode well for the atala butterfly, whose tiny caterpillars have to have coontie to feed upon. They are able to break down the cycasin, just as monarchs have evolved to break down the toxins in milkweeds.

The good news is that coontie has more recently become a popular landscape plant in south Florida, both in commercial and residential settings. The atala butterfly population is recovering and will continue to do so as long as folks remember that atala caterpillars will denude their plants from time to time. “Give me holes in my plants, but leave me the butterflies, please!” to paraphrase Joni Mitchell. Coontie remains on Florida’s Commercially Exploited Plant List and the collection of coontie from the wild is prohibited.

We won’t attract atalas here in North Florida, but coontie has so many other attributes to make it a great choice for Tallahassee landscapes. Plant one today!

Native Blue Porterweed

Incredible and incredibly edible, the native wildflower Blue Porterweed (Stachytarpheta jamaicensis) is a feast for the eyes and the stomachs of humans and pollinators alike! Stachys comes from the Greek word for an “ear of grain” and tarphys comes from the Greek word for thick, referring to this plant’s reed-like flower spikes. Jamaicensis refers to one origin country in this plant’s native region. Can you guess which one? Jamaica. Native to South and Central Florida as well as the Caribbean and Tropical America, this wildflower grows as an annual or tender perennial in North Florida and dies completely during our cold winters unless protected. One thing is certain – this low, sprawling wildflower makes the most of its time when planted this far north.

Long, narrow spikes bear delicate pastel-blue to lavender flowers with white centers that open for just one day before falling away.. or into a harvest basket. These edible blooms, eaten raw, taste exactly like mushrooms and the flower spikes, used like a bay leaf, add seasoning to soups and stews. A natural foam occurs from the dried leaves if steeped into a tea or brewed into a beer, hence the name “porter”-weed. This fizzy mixture benefits humans both recreationally and medicinally, with many claiming the beverage aids in the treatment of fever and other maladies. Researchers study S. jamaicensis extensively for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial properties. A leaf extract contained high levels of phytochemicals with proven anti-microbial power.

Pollinators use the leaves in addition to humans! The toothed, ovate leaves of blue porterweed provide a meal to Tropical Buckeye butterflies (who live further south than Tallahassee). These butterflies feed on the porterweed as it is one of the buckeye’s few larval hosts. Blue porterweed’s prolific blooms emerge from spring to fall and these nectar-filled, tubular flowers attract hummingbirds, butterflies, moths, and bees. Cloudless sulphurs tend to rest along the flower while moths flit back and forth along the spikes at dusk.

These blooms refuse to open on cloudy days or if placed in too much shade so plant in full to part sun. Blue Porterweed grows low at just eight to twelve inches tall with a three foot spread so give this sprawling plant plenty of space to grow! Plant near shelters to protect the plant when it freezes or treat as an annual and allow it to die during the winter. The leaves turn from their dark green to a purple color and exhibit some foliar damage in temperatures colder than fifty degrees. However sensitive to cold, its natural habitat on coastal dunes, shell mounds and disturbed areas means the Blue Porterweed tolerates salt and drought. 

Non-native, invasive varieties such as Stachytarpheta urticifolia or Stachytarpheta cayennensis look extremely similar to the native S. jamaicensis. The S. urticifolia and S. cayennensis’s erect growth habit distinguishes them from the native’s prostrate habit. I would advise you to take care identifying or avoid buying porterweed when shopping at non-native nurseries as these two species escape cultivation and infringe on native habitats. If you love the native blue porterweed and want more of it, this plant propagates best from cuttings and ensures the origin of the specimen.

Native blue porterweed has a rich history and is a robust southern staple in the garden. This flower pulls its weight in the landscape, spreading out and blooming non-stop most of the year. If you're interested in establishing a butterfly or edible garden, this plant has a foot in both categories and I’d recommend rushing out to get one as soon as possible!