Saltbush at the Beach

Before the season changes with the new year, I wanted to mention Saltbush. This is a plant I am starting to really like. It can be a woody shrub or small tree. It is found growing along the edges of salt and freshwater marshes and disturbed sites both wet and dry. It can reach a height of ten feet with a spread of ten feet wide. It grows throughout Florida and along the coast to Texas and Massachusetts. I planted two when we first moved into our house and way too close together. I am trying to train one to be a bush and one has grown into a small tree reaching up through the native scrub oak. They are part of the reason we have so many birds in our wild garden as the bees and butterflies seem to like the nectar. Two seedlings have recently appeared by our front porch in pretty lousy soil conditions reaching up from the sand and through driveway clay and gravel. They seem perfectly happy and will be a welcome additon. I'm anxious to see what they want to be when they grow up.

The one pictured here is from our visit to the Camp Helen State Park. The leaves are evergreen and the flowers appear in the late fall during a time few other plants are flowering.

It is important to note that the plant is toxic to grazing livestock. For more info on this plant: http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=BAHA