Impomoea imperati

Beach Morning Glory is a native, long-lived, perennial, low-growing, flowering vine that grows along the ground. It is wonderful for coastal sites or full sun, dry sandy soils. It is highly drought and salt tolerant and has showy white flowers that are great for bee, butterflies and pollinators including hummingbirds.

Zamia integrifolia

Coontie is perfect for a dry sunny or shady spot in the garden. It is extremely hardy and drought tolerant and is successful in harsh conditions like highway medians. It generally stays under three feet tall and 3 feet wide and has a tropical Florida feel. Coontie is an ancient plant and is Florida’s only living cycad. It is the important host plant for the Atala butterfly.

Sabal minor

Dwarf Blue Stem Palmetto is a small, clumping palm that typically grows 3-6 ft tall with a trunkless or short-trunked form. It is extremely cold-hardy, flood-tolerant, and drought-tolerant once established. It thrives in full sun to partial shade with average to moist soil. This low-maintenance native requires little care and provides excellent textural interest and tropical appeal to landscapes. Its fan-shaped fronds create dense, attractive foliage year-round, making it ideal for understory plantings or as a distinctive accent plant.

Clusia guttifera ‘Nana’

Dwarf Pitch Apple is a compact, slow-growing cultivar of the native Florida pitch apple that stays low to the ground as a spreading shrub. This semi-succulent plant features the same distinctive thick, leathery paddle-shaped leaves as its full-sized parent but in a much more manageable form, typically reaching only 2-4 feet in height and spreading wider than it is tall. It produces waxy pink and white flowers with apple-like buds and can develop aerial roots, adding to its unique tropical appearance. Extremely low-maintenance and drought-tolerant once established, it thrives in full sun to partial shade and serves as an excellent border plant or accent specimen for South Florida landscapes in zones 9-11.

Baccharis dioca

Also known as Broombush and Falsewillow

This hardy, lower-growing native shrub always seems to look great in a garden setting and it does well in a lot of different garden conditions. It holds its space well and has beautiful texture year round. The flowers bloom late summer through early fall and attract numerous pollinators. It is drought tolerant but also high tolerant of salt spray and salt inundation.

Myrcianthes fragrans ‘Compacta’

Dwarf Simpson Stopper grows to 4’ and creates a nice low hedge or border planting. Cream puff blooms and vibrant red berries add color and texture to any landscape. Drought tolerant once established, these small shrubs work well in non-irrigated landscapes. Of course, they don’t mind irrigation either!

Ilex vomitoria 'Schillings Dwarf'

Dwarf Yaupon Holly is a super hardy and adaptable small shrub that makes a great low growing border or mass planting. It’s easily prunable and it’s full height is 3-4 ft. It does well in full sun to partial shade with dry to moist (well-drained) soils.The dwarf plants are male and produce a flower but no berries, however they help to pollinate female upright Yaupon Hollies and the Yaupon Holly cultivars like Weeping Yaupon Holly.

Eragrostis elliotti

Elliott's Lovegrass is a native perennial bunchgrass. This delicate species produces silvery blue-green foliage topped by airy panicles of tiny beige to pinkish flowers that create a billowy, cloud-like appearance when in bloom from late summer through fall. It demonstrates remarkable tolerance to both drought and periodic flooding with fresh water and salt-wind spray. This re-seeding and adaptable grass thrives in sandy, low-nutrient soils and provides excellent texture and late-season interest for naturalized plantings.

Psychotria nervosa

This evergreen native shrub is loved by pollinators and birds. Staying small at 2' or shorter, Extra Dwarf Wild Coffee is perfect as a low ground cover in shady areas, under oaks or as a border plant. Flowers bloom through summer turning into red berries in fall and winter.

Tripsacum dactyloides

Fakahatchee Grass is a large Florida-native ornamental grass with dense, clumping foliage that can reach 4’-6’. It does well in full sun to partial shade with average to moist soil. Perfect for rain gardens, borders, and erosion control, this grass produces graceful, spiky foliage and unique, showy flower spikes. The foliage provides shelter for birds and small mammals, the seeds are a food source for many birds, and the foliage is a larval host for several Skipper butterflies.

Phyla nodiflora

One of our favorite native plant “lawn alternatives,” Frogfruit is a low growing, perennial evergeen groundcover that grows in full sun to partial shade and in dry to moist soils. Frogfruit is highly salt-tolerant, fast growing, mow-able and lightly walk-able. It’s also an important host plant to the Phaon Crescent, White Peacock and Common Buckeye butterflies and is a nectar source pollinators including hummingbirds.

Chrysopsis mariana

Golden Aster is a native perennial wildflower that grows 1’-2’ tall, with showy yellow flowers that bloom from late spring to fall. They grow best in full sun to partial shade and well-drained, moist to dry sandy soil. The flowers provide a nectar source for butterflies and other pollinators, and add a bright pop of color to the garden.

Serenoa repens

The Green Saw Palmetto is a tough, drought-tolerant Florida native fan palm perfect for coastal landscapes and understory planting. It features sprawling horizontal stems, brilliant green fronds, and distinctive saw-toothed leaf stalks. In spring, it produces fragrant blooms that attract pollinators, followed by wildlife-supporting berries. Plant in full sun or shade and dry, sandy soil.

Acrostichum  danaeifolium

A majestic and prehistoric-looking native fern that makes a bold architectural statement in the landscape. It features large, upright, leathery fronds that can reach impressive heights of 6 to 12 feet. This robust fern thrives in full sun to deep shade and is particularly well-suited for wet areas, pond edges, or low spots in the garden. It is highly salt-tolerant and adds a lush, tropical texture to any damp or aquatic setting.

Salvia lyrata

Lyreleaf Sage is a long-lived, reseeding, perennial, evergreen, ground-covering wildflower that blooms in the spring and summer. Lyreleaf likes sun to shade and dry to wet (well-drained) soils. The purple flowers attract hummingbirds as well as other pollinators like butterflies. The young leaves are edible and the plant is used medicinally.

Muhlenbergia capilliaris

Native, perennial, weeping and thick clumping grass. Full sun to light shade, average soil, 4'. Moderately salt-tolerant, can usually spread by self-sown seeds. Attractive foliage year-round, but showiest in the fall with purple/pink flowering plumes. Combines well with wildflowers.

Eragrostis spectabilis

Purple Lovegrass is a warm-season bunchgrass native to eastern and central North America that forms low, mounding clumps 1’-2’ tall and wide. This drought-tolerant species features flat, blue-green basal leaves topped by airy, delicate flower panicles that create a stunning purple-pink haze above the foliage in late summer. Extremely hardy and well-suited for hot, dry conditions, it thrives in sandy or gravelly soils, where few other plants can survive, and spreads slowly by short rhizomes and self-seeding. Found naturally in abandoned fields, roadsides, dry prairies, and upland savannas from Maine to Florida, it serves as an excellent ornamental grass for xeriscaping and naturalized plantings, providing late-season color and texture to challenging sites.

Ipomoea pes-caprae

Railroad vine is an evergreen, flowering, vining groundcover. It is fast growing, does not require a trellis, and reaches 1ft in height. It thrives in full sun on coastal landscapes, is salt tolerant, but very cold-sensitive. It needs dry, sandy soils, and is great for stabilizing beach dunes. Showy pink/purple trumpet flowers are great for bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

Spartina patens

Saltmeadow Cordgrass is a perennial grass native to Florida's coasts that grows up to 3 feet tall in salt marshes and brackish wetlands. This hardy species features slender, wiry stems and narrow leaves that often form distinctive whorled patterns, creating dense clumps in the high marsh zone above the high-tide line. Highly valuable for Florida wildlife, it provides critical nesting habitat for saltmarsh sparrows, red-winged blackbirds, and boat-tailed grackles, while the seeds feed various shorebirds and waterfowl including mallards and pintails. The dense grass also offers protective cover for diamondback terrapins, marsh rabbits, and juvenile fish during high tide, while serving as foraging areas for great blue herons and snowy egrets. This salt-tolerant native grass plays a vital ecological role in Florida's coastal marsh systems, supporting both resident and migratory species.

Serenoa repens

The Blue Saw Palmetto is a tough, drought-tolerant Florida native fan palm perfect for coastal landscapes and understory planting. It features sprawling horizontal stems, blue/silver fronds, and distinctive saw-toothed leaf stalks. In spring, it produces fragrant blooms that attract pollinators, followed by wildlife-supporting berries. Plant in full sun or shade and dry, sandy soil.

Mimosa strigillosa

Sunshine Mimosa is a native perennial groundcover that grows 6–9” tall, with a deep root system and a fast-spreading habit. It thrives in full to partial sun and adapts to dry to wet soils. This hardy plant is salt-tolerant, cold-tolerant, and perfect for walkable or mowable spaces, making it an excellent choice for multi-species or “floral lawns.” Pollinators love it.