Coastal Landscaping Plants

Depending upon where you live and what kind of plants you want to put in it is important to put the RIGHT PLANT IN THE RIGHT PLACE

The Native Plant Society is committed to helping individuals, businesses, municipalities and other organizations find the correct plants for their landscaping project.

Growing plants on the beach side in northern central Florida can be challenging, and this is no small understatement!
However, you can have beautiful landscaping, flowers, trees, and shrubs.  The right plants are salt tolerant, native and provide food and shelter for our birds and butterflys.

This page has plants that can grow from the dunes to about 1000 feet inland.  This is an approximate distance that salt spray has a regular impact on plants.  During storm events salt spray can travel up to a mile inland and cause short term salt burning.  Salt burning is actually a passive chemical reaction due to osmosis.  The presence of salt (NaCl) on the leaves causes the plant relocate cellular water in an attempt to maintain an osmotic equlibrium.  Salt burning occurs when the plant can not offset the presence of the salt and the vegetative tissue dies due to the lack of cellular water.

Beach front homes back 1000 feet.  (usually about a quarter or half of he barrier island)


 
FLOWERS & HERBS
Anise, Illicium parviflorum Red bay, Pesea borbonia
Beach creeper, Ernodea littoralis Bay cedar, Suriana maritima Sabal palm, Sabal palmetto
Beach verbean, Glandularia maritima Beach elder, Iva imbricata Sand live oak, Quercus geminata
Blanket flower, Gaillardia pulchella Blolly, Guapira discolor Saw palmetto, Serenoa repens
Dune sunflower, Helianthus debilis Buttonwood, Concocarpus erectus Sea grape, Coccoloba uvifera
Goldenrod, Solidago sempervirens Coral bea, Erythrina herbacea Sea oxeye daisy, Borrichia frutescens
Horsemint, Monarda punctata Fiddlewood, Citharexylum spinosum Simpson's stopper, Myrcianthes fragrans
Native lantana, Lantana depressa Florida bully, Siderxylon reclinatum Snowberry, Chiococca alba
Native lantana, Lantana involucrata Florida  privet, Forestiera segregata
VINES
Painted leaf, Pointsettia cyanthophora Hog Plum, Ximenia americana Beach bean, Canavalia rosea
Purple love grass, Eragrostis spectabilis Inkberry, Scaevola plumieri Beach morning glory, Ipomoea imperati
Red sage, Salvia coccinea Jamaican caper, Capparis cynophallophora Railroad vine, Ipomoea pes-caprae
Scorpiontail, Heliotropium angiospermum Live oak,  Quercus virginana Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia
Seaside gentian, Eustoma exaltatum Marlberry, Ardisia escallonioides
GRASSES
Sensitive pea, Chamaecrista nictitans Marsh elder, Iva frutescens Beach cordgrass, Spartina patens
 Sensitive mimosa, Mimosa strigillosa Myrsine, Rapanea punctata Bitter panicum, Panicum amrum
Standing Cypress, Ipomopsis rubra Necklace pod, Sophora tomentosa Cordgrass, Spartina bakerii
SHRUBS & TREES
Prickly pear cactus, Opuntia humifusa Sea Oats, Uniola paniculata
Anise, Illicium floridanum Red cedar, Juniperus virginiana

This list of plants are or were the most common plants in the Volusia-Flagler dunes and coastal hammocks.