Larval host plant for red-banded hairstreak ( Calycopis cecrops) butterflies and io ( Automeris io) moths. Wildlife and Ecology: Provides significant food and cover for wildlife. Light Requirements: Full sun to light shade.įlower Characteristics: Inconspicuous catkins.įlowering Season: All year peak winter-spring. Salt Wind Tolerance: Moderate grows near salt water, but is protected from direct salt spray by other vegetation.ĭrought Tolerance: Moderate generally requires moist soils, but tolerant of short periods of drought once established. Salt Water Tolerance: Low does not tolerate long-term flooding by salt or brackish water. Nutritional Requirements: Moderate can grow in nutrient poor soils, but needs some organic content to thrive. Soils: Moist to wet, well-drained to poorly-drained sandy, limestone, or organic soils, usually with humusy top layer. Map of ZIP codes with habitat recommendations from the Monroe County Keys north to Martin and Charlotte counties. Map of suggested ZIP codes from South Florida north to southern Brevard, Osceola, Polk, and Pasco counties. Map of select IRC data from peninsular Florida. For a digitized image of Elbert Little's Florida range map, visit the Exploring Florida website. In the Monroe County Keys, disjunct from the Miami-Dade County mainland and North Key Largo to the lower Keys. Sometimes as broad as tall, especially when smaller.Įastern and southeastern United States west to Texas and Oklahoma and south to the Monroe County Keys Bermuda, West Indies, Mexico and Central America. Leaves wax-covered, semi-deciduous, 1-4 inches long, aromatic when crushed.ĭimensions: Typically 8-15 feet in height in South Florida, but extremely variable to 36 feet in Florida. Available in Boynton Beach at Sustaincape Florida (56), Lake Worth at Indian Trails Native Nursery (56) and at Amelia's SmartyPlants (56).ĭescription: Medium to large shrub or small tree with a narrow crown from crooked trunks. Learn more about gardening with wax myrtle for birds and other wildlife in Attracting Birds to South Florida Gardens. It can be used as an accent or specimen shrub, as a trimmed or informal hedge, or in mixed buffer plantings. When the larvae hatch, they crawl up to feed on the host plant’s live leaves.A versatile shrub or small tree in formal and informal landscapes, but it needs moist to wet soils to thrive. The red-banded hairstreak butterfly deposits its eggs on dead myrtle leaves that have fallen to the ground. Clusters of tiny blue-silvery berries (drupes) that form along the branches are a favored source of food for many birds including wild turkeys, quails, tree swallows, bluebirds, thrashers and waterfowl. Wildlife seeks shelter in myrtle’s thickly-packed branches and dark-green foliage. This fast-growing, shrub-like evergreen may escape human notice, but birds, butterflies and assorted small animals pay attention. Along some sections, volunteer myrtles are so dense they’ve formed an impromptu thicket. On our property, although we didn’t plant them, wax myrtles hug the shoreline. It’s just there, part of the environment. That’s how it is with the Florida native Myrica cerifera, commonly known as wax myrtle, Southern bayberry or candleberry bush. When a tree is plain, we pay it little heed. Instead, they tend to blend in with the environment forming a backdrop to our everyday lives. Although landscapers may incorporate such plants into commercial and residential designs, they rarely garner much attention or excitement. It’s easy to overlook a tree that is neither bold nor ablaze with blooms.
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