CAESAR WEED
Scientific name: Urena lobata
Family: Malvaceae/mallow
Origin: Old world & New world tropics
Description:
Branching herb, partly woody shrub, reaching up to nine feet in height. Leaves alternate, ovate, shallowly lobed, fine-toothed, hairy, five-to-ten cm long. Flowers are pink, five petals, bases united. Fruit is small, spiny, round, five parted capsule, splitting once mature.
Habitat/Ecology:
Occurs in various habitats, including pine flat woods, cypress swamps, marshes, and hammocks; quick to establish itself along disturbed areas. Flowers and fruits throughout the year; seeds are abundant, often dispersed by sticking to clothing and animal fur/hair.
CARROTWOOD
Scientific name: Cupaniopsis anacardioides
Family: Sapindaceae/soapberry
Origin: Australia
Description:
Evergreen tree, usually single trunk, grows to 33 feet tall, with dark gray outer bark and often orange inner bark. Leaves are alternate, once compound, with the stalk of the leaf swollen at the base, oblong, leathery, shiny yellowish green, four-twelve leaflets, up to 1/2 inch wide, in branched clusters up to fourteen inches long. Fruit is a short-stalked, woody capsule up to one inch across, with three distinctly ridged segments, yellow to orange when ripe, drying to brown and splitting open to reveal three shiny oval black seeds covered by a yellow to red crust.
Habitat/Ecology:
Occurs in a variety of habitats, from mangrove estuaries to cypress swamps; salt tolerant; thrives in full sun, full shade, poor drainage, poor soils, and dry areas. Fast growing; flowers in late winter/early spring, January and February, with fruits maturing in April and May. Seeds dispersed by birds.
CLIMBING CASSIA
Scientific name: Senna pendula
Family: Fabaceae/pea
Origin: South America
Description:
Sprawling evergreen shrub growing thirteen feet tall/wide, with somewhat zigzag, sparsely hairy stems. Leaves are alternate, stalked, even-pinnately compound, with 3-6 pairs of leaflets, larger ones at leaf tips; leaflets are 1.6 inches long, oblong with rounded tips. Flowers are yellow, 1.2-1.6 inches across, in three-to-twelve flowered clusters near stem tips, stamens with prominent, curved filaments. Fruit a brown slender pod, cylindric, smooth, three-five inches long.
Habitat/Ecology:
Occurs in various natural areas, tropical hammocks, cypress swamps, coastal strands, Florida scrub, and disturbed areas. Quite salt tolerant; does well in sandy soil. Flowers in late fall to early winter, producing numerous seeds in each pod. Grows easily once established, climbing on and over native vegetation.
COMMON GUAVA
Scientific name: Psidium guajava
Family: Myrtaceae/myrtle
Origin: Tropical America
Description:
Evergreen shrub or small tree, reaching up to thirty feet in height, with scaly greenish-brown bark and young branches four-angled, hairy. Leaves opposite, simple, short-stalked, entire, oval to oblong-elliptic, six inches long, hairy below, with veins impressed above and conspicuously raised below. Flowers white, fragrant, 1.6 inches wide, borne singly or a few together at leaf stem base; many stamens. Fruit an oval or pear shaped berry one-to-four inches long, green when young turning yellow at maturity, with yellow or dark pink flesh somewhat dull in taste; seeds numerous.
Habitat/Ecology:
Occurs in pine flat woods, hammocks, cypress swamps, and disturbed open fields. Grows rapidly forming dense thickets; tolerates shade. Flowers and fruits all year; has high seed production, early seed maturity. Seeds dispersed by both birds and mammals.
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