The Virtual UCF Arboretum

American Beauty Berry (Callicarpa americana)

The American Beauty Berry, Callicarpa americana, is a perennial shrub that produces berries that grow like a shis kabob along the stem around each leaf node. These berries are an important food source for many song birds and mammals native to Florida. They can also be consumed by humans and are sometimes made into pies or jams. The leaves of this plant produce a chemical that is a natural repellent to mosquitoes. Cowboys and farmers used to snap off a branch of this plant and place it in their horses harness to ward off mosquito swarms. start a new post.

Blazing Star (Liatris tenuifolia)

Educational Story The Shortleaf or Scrub Blazing Star, Liatris tenuifolia, is a perennial flowering plant in the Aster family that produces a striking blaze of flowers. The inflorescence is a spike of rayless rose/ purple-colored flowers that typically bloom from the top, down. It reaches a height of 3-4 ft, and grows in well-drained soils in the Southeastern United States, typical of scrub and flatwoods communities….

Bog Button (Lachnocaulon anceps)

Educational Story Bog Button, Lauchnocaulon anceps, is a native Florida perennial herb in the pipewort family. The inflorescence is a button-shaped cluster of densely packed white flowers at the top of a hairy stalk. The 1-2 inch leaves grow in clusters at the base of flowering stalks that can grow up to 16 inches tall. Five species of Bog Button occur in…

Bracken Fern (Pteridium aquilinum var. pseudocaudatum)

Educational Story Bracken Fern, Pteridium aquilinum var. pseudocaudatum, is a native perennial fern that reproduces through spores. Pteridium aquilinum means “like wings of an eagle”, because of the appearance of its fronds. It is the most widespread and easily recognized species of fern. The aquilinum species is native to Europe, where it grows larger than in the United States. Their…

Scarlet Calamint (Calamintha coccinea)

Educational Story The very showy Scarlet Calamint, Calamintha coccinea, is a small woody perennial that produces brilliant red, tubular flowers, and is pollinated by, and provides an important food source to bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. It grows in full sun and very well drained, sandy soils such as sandhill, coastal dunes, and scrub habitats. It is also…

Chalky Bluestem (Andropogon virginicus var. glaucus)

Educational Story The Chalky Bluestem, Andropogon virginicus, is a fast growing grass that grows in scrubby flatwoods and is a primary succession plant that establishes itself after disturbance events such as tropical storms and wildfires. The stems of this grass are covered with a chalky wax coating that can be easily rubbed off, and gives…

Coastalplain Honeycombhead (Balduina angustifolia)

Educational Story The Costalplain Honeycombhead, Balduina Angustifolia, is a member of the aster family which includes daisies and sunflowers. It flowers during late summer and early fall. Its yellow flowers include both ray and disc florets and they bloom on slender, wiry stems. It grows in sandy soils associated with pine flatwoods, scrub, and coastal ecosystems….

Coontie (Zamia integrifolia)

Educational Story The Coontie, Zamia integrifolia, is Florida’s only native cycad. Native Americans processed the large underground roots of coontie into a starchy flour. It is sometimes called Coontie Palm or Coontie Fern based on its tropical appearance. but it is a gymnosperm more closely related to pine trees than palms or ferns. Coontie is…

Dahoon Holly (Ilex cassine)

Educational Story The Dahoon holly, Ilex cassine, is a medium to small evergreen tree that can be found growing in Mesic Flatwoods and wet locations like swamps. Like most hollies, it is dioecious, producing individual plants that are either male or female. Leaves are smooth and shiny, and make an ideal hedge with attractive white flowers….

Feay’s Palafox (Palafoxia feayi)

Educational Story The Feay’s Palafox, Palafoxia feayi, is a native, herbaceous perennial plant that occurs in scrub and sandhill habitats in Florida. This species produces strong, tall stalks with small oval leaves. It is in the aster family, but its flowers are unusual, consisting of a open, round head of tubular disc flowers with no…

Fetterbush (Lyonia lucida)

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Florida Paintbrush (Carphephorus corymbosus)

Educational Story Florida Paintbrush, Carphephorus corymbosus, is a perennial herb that has showy violet-colored flowers that resemble an artists paintbrush. It is in the Asteraceae or aster family, which includes the daisies and sunflowers. The striking flowers bloom in fall and consist of a compact head of small, bright purplish, tubular florets, each with a star…

Florida Tickseed (Coreopsis leavenworthii)

Educational Story The Florida Tickseed, Coreopsis leavenworthii, is in the genus that includes the Florida state wildflower. Bright yellow flowers bloom year round in sun or shade, often tolerating poor soils. It’s a fast growing perennial that re-seeds itself, making it easy to grow and enjoy. Lady Bird Johnson, first lady to the 36th President…

Forked Bluecurls (Trichostema dichotomum)

Educational Story Forked Bluecurls, Trichostema dichotomum, is a low-growing, annual herb in the mint family (Lamiaceae). It has brilliantly iridescent blue or purplish flowers that have dramatic long stamens and styles curling out over the two-lipped petals. The fragrant flowers attract pollinators and are an important food source, especially for bees. Found throughout Florida and along…

Fourpetal St. John’s Wort (Hypericum tetrapetalum)

Educational Story The Fourpetal St. John’s Wort, Hypericum tetrapetalum, is a small woody shrub with few branches that can be found growing in pine flatwoods throughout Florida. It occurs only in Florida and limited areas of Georgia. This species can be identified by its brilliant yellow flowers, with four petals and heart shaped leaf bases…

Goldenrod (Solidago stricta)

Educational Story Slender Goldenrod, Solidago stricta, is one of many species of goldenrod that can be found throughout Florida growing in sandy, well-drained soils. Goldenrod species are perennial herbs in the aster family and have small, bright yellow flowers borne on long flower stalks called a panicle. Slender Goldenrod has small erect leaves that press…

Hooded Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia minor)

Educational Story The Hooded Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia minor, is a carnivorous plant that lives in wet areas like swamps and bogs in the southeastern coastal plain of North America, ranging from coastal North Carolina through south-central Florida. It has long upright tubular leaves with deep cavities that are perfectly evolved to trap unsuspecting insects using…

Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris)

Educational Story The Longleaf Pine, Pinus palustris, is native to North America and the southeastern coastal plain, west to Texas and north to Virginia, and was once a dominant species throughout this region. Longleaf pines can live for more than 600 years and have evolved to thrive in fire dependent ecosystems. The Longleaf pine ecosystem…

Lopsided Indiangrass (Sorghastrum secundum)

Educational Story Lopsided Indiangrass, Sorghastrum secundum, is a type of bunch grass native to the southeastern United States. It is commonly used in native landscapes and restoration projects. Flower and seed heads produce a showy, one-sided panicle that hangs to one side from a tall stalk when the grass is flowering; thus the name ‘lopsided’….

Pond Cypress (Taxodium ascendens)

Educational Story The Pond Cypress, Taxodium ascendens, is a tree that lives in swampy ground, but can adapt to drier lands. Its seeds need wet soil to germinate. This tree species can be found in depressional areas that hold water, slowly colonizing the middle of the depression and moving outwards. A cypress population in a round…

Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia humifusa)

Educational Story The Prickly-Pear Cactus, Opuntia humifusa, is also sometimes called Devil’s Tongue, and grows in sunny, well drained soils across Florida. This cactus tends to grow in clumps and has large pads with tufts of spines and brilliant yellow flowers with orange-red centers. Cochineal insects that feed on Opuntia cactus was harvested in Florida in the 1700’s by the…

Rayless Sunflower (Helianthus radula)

Educational Story Rayless Sunflower, Helianthus radula, is a sunflower that produces a tight cluster of purple to brown, tighly packed disk flowers atop a long stalk. This sunflower lacks the showy, outer ray flowers of the inflorescence typical of other members of the Asteraceae, like daisies. It has large, rounded, hairy basal leaves growing close…

Reindeer Moss (Cladonia spp.)

Educational Story Reindeer Moss, Cladonia spp., includes several species of lichen that can be found growing on the ground throughout Florida in undisturbed, dry upland habitats. It is typically abundant in areas that have not been exposed to fire for many years. Lichens are not a single species, but are actually a mutualism between a fungus and…

Sabal Palm (Sabal palmetto)

Educational Story The Sabal Palm, Sabal palmetto, is the official state tree of Florida and South Carolina. It grows in sandy, well drained soil in part shade. Its singular trunk can reach 30 feet in height. Fan-shaped leaves, palm fronds, grow from the top of the tree from a single apical meristem, which is the…

Sand Live Oak (Quercus geminata)

Educational Story The Sand Live Oak, Quercus geminata, is best know for its grand and majestic form, often clad elegantly Spanish Moss. It is a type of white oak and is part of the Fagaceae family of trees, which also includes beeches and chestnuts. Reaching a height of 50 feet, its branches often spread to…

Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens)

Educational Story First described and named by William Bartram on his travels through Florida in the late 1700’s, the Saw Palmetto, Serenoa repens, is a major ground cover shrub occurring in many upland flatwoods ecosystems in Florida. This low-growing, sturdy palm is also used widely as a landscape plant. The thick stalks creep along the…

Scrub Rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides)

Educational Story The Scrub Rosemary, Ceratiola ericoides, sometimes called Florida rosemary, smells wonderful, but is not edible. It is a rounded, dense shrub with erect branches and short, needle-like leaves that conserve water through reduction of evaporation. Native to subtropical dry sandy habitats near the coast of southeastern United States, it grows together with pine…

Shortleaf Rosegentian (Sabatia brevifolia)

Educational Story The Shortleaf Rosegentian, Sabatia brevifolia, has opposite leaves and is a white, 5-petaled flower with a yellow center displaying an intricate, twisted pistil. Bees and butterflies can be found visiting the plant during the flowering season. It is one of the more showy of the white Florida native wild flowers, and it can…

Slender Flattop Goldenrod (Euthamia caroliniana)

Educational Story The Slender Flattop Goldenrod, Euthamia caroliniana, is a fall-flowering herbaceous perennial plant that produces flowers similar to flowers of the typical goldenrod genus, Solidago. The small yellow flowers have a more elegant and ethereal form than a typical goldenrod, but are equally attractive to bees and other pollinators. It flowers from July into October and…

Spanish Moss (Tillandsia usneoides)

Educational Story Spanish Moss, Tillandsia usneoides, is most often seen hanging gracefully from Live Oak branches. Its subtle blue-green strands swaying in the breeze are characteristic of many distinctive southern landscapes. Not requiring soil, it collects its nutrients from the air and rain water. The plant forms one or more slender stems that bear thin, alternate, curved…

Tall Jointweed (Polygonella gracilis)

Educational Story The Tall Jointweed, Polygonella gracilis, requires a careful eye to see. It is so fine and small, it is almost as invisible as a spider’s web. When the plant is not flowering, it is nearly impossible to identify. This annual herb flowers from a tall, skinny stem that can reach up to 6-feet…

Titusville Balm (Dicerandra thinicola)

Educational Story The Titusville Balm, Dicerandra thinicola, is a critically endangered mint species, only found wild in a very small region of Florida’s central east coast on the coastal ridge of Titusville, Florida, near Cape Canaveral. Several of these plants were rescued from a development site and were transplanted to the UCF Arboretum, which has…

Waterlily (Nymphaea odorata)

Educational Story The Waterlily, Nymphaea odorata, is a native plant found in Florida freshwater environments, such as ponds, lakes, and rivers. Its leaves are large, rounded pads that float flat on the water’s surface, with a triangular slit on one side where the leaf attaches to the underwater stem or petiole that emerges from a…

Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera)

Educational Story The Wax Myrtle, Myrica cerifera, is a small shrub-like tree that has smooth, light grey twisted trunks with thin bark. It occurs throughout the southeastern coastal plain and the Caribbean. It has short, narrow, leathery leaves with serrated edges that contain aromatic compounds. When the leaves are broken or bruised, they give off…

Wiregrass (Aristida stricta)

Educational Story Wiregrass, Aristida stricta, is an extremely important understory groundcover in flatwoods and sandhill ecosystems throughout the southeastern coastal plain. It is also sometimes referred to as Pineland threeawn. This narrow leafed wiry grass grows in clumps and can reach heights of up to 2 feet. Flowering stalks may be up to 3 feet, Wiregrass…