Florida Trees and Shrubs

This page profiles ten Florida trees and shrubs — eight native species including American Beautyberry, Coral Bean (Cherokee Bean), Bigflower and Reticulate Pawpaw, Indigo Bush, Doctorbush, Shiny Blueberry, and Rouge Plant, alongside two invasive exotics: Lead Tree and Rattle Box (Spanish Gold). Each entry includes habitat information, identifying characteristics, and photographs of leaves, flowers, or fruit to assist with field identification, along with the plant's scientific name and family.

Rouge Plant - Rivina humilis
Family - Petiveriaceae

Native

Habitat - Hammocks, ruderal

Description - Native Florida shrub to near 6 feet, with only the very base being somewhat woody in nature. Leaves are alternate with distinctly wavy margins.

Flower - Clusters of pinkish-white flowers on spikes throughout the year, followed by the bright red berries.

Shiny Blueberry - Vaccinium myrsinites
Family - Ericaceae

Native

Habitat - Pinelands, Flatwoods

Description - Native shrub, 1-2 feet high, spreads from rhizomes. Leaves alternate, obovate to elliptic, leathery, 1/4 to 3/4 inches long with entire or finely serrate margins.

Flower - Small urn-shaped, pink to white in spring, 1/4 inch +/-. Fruit is a small red to black drupe.

American Beautyberry - Callicarpa americana
Family - Verbenaceae

Native

Habitat - Common to woodlands and hammocks statewide.

Description - Native perennial shrub, 6 to 8 feet tall.

Flower - Small lilac flowers in spring produce clusters of bright violet to purple 1/4 inch drupes.

Cherokee Bean, Coral Bean - Erythrina herbacea
Family - Fabaceae

Native

Habitat - Pineland clearings, coastal hammocks

Description - Native perennial tree, shrub, or sub-shrub to 16 feet in height. Leaves 7-8 inches long, alternate, compound with 3 ovate to cordate (arrowhead) shaped leaflets.

Brilliant red tubular flowers in spring and summer, 2 1/2 inches long borne on tall racemes. Fruit is a narrow pod to about 8 inches, constricted around the bright red seeds inside. Flowers attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

Indigo Bush - Amorpha fruticosa
Family - Fabaceae

Native

Habitat - Stream, creek and pond banks, wet flatwoods, floodplains of rivers, hydric hammocks.

Description - Perennial, deciduous shrub 3-10 feet high with compound leaves 4-8 inches long, each with 11 to 25 ovate to oblong leaflets, highly variable leaf shape.

Flower - Scented spike, 3-6 inches long, purplish-blue with orange anthers.

Bigflower Pawpaw - Asimina obovata
Family - Annonaceae

Native

Habitat - Flatwoods, scrub

Description - Endemic native Florida perennial shrub.

Reticulate Pawpaw - Asimina reticulata
Family - Annonaceae

Native

Habitat - Flatwoods.

Description - Florida native plant, endemic perennial shrub to about 5 feet tall, long petioles, leaf oblong to obovate, margins in-rolled.

Doctorbush - Plumbago scandens
Family - Plumbaginaceae

Native

Habitat - Hammocks, Thickets, Shell mounds, rocky areas

Description - Florida native perennial shrub or vine, leaves variable. Distinguished by the unusual stalked glands along length of flower tube ribs. Flowers year-round in S. Florida.

Lead Tree - Leucaena leucocephala
Family - Fabaceae

Invasive / Exotic

Native to the West Indies, escapes from cultivation in Florida. Shrub or small tree to about 30 feet. Leaves are alternate, bipinnately compound up to a foot long with 10-20 pairs of opposite, oblong leaflets.

Clusters of white/creamy white puff-ball type flowers 3/4 inch in diameter are followed by a flattened reddish-brown or brown pod containing several seeds.

Rattle Box, Spanish Gold - Sesbania punicea
Family - Fabaceae

Invasive / Exotic

Sprawling shrub 6-8 feet tall, often growing along ditches, creeks, ponds and other moist locations, forms dense thickets. Leaf is alternate, compound, 5-7 inches long with 7-16 pairs of 1 inch elliptical leaflets. Orange-red pea-like flowers in hanging clusters spring through early summer. Fruit is a brown legume ending in a sharp point, 3 to 4 inches long with 4 conspicuous longitudinal wings. All parts of this plant are poisonous, especially the seeds.