Native Plant Database

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Shrub
Size Notes: To 2.5 meters in height.
Leaf: Pink
Fruit:
Size Class: 3-6 ft.

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Pink
Bloom Time: Mar , Apr , May , Jun , Jul , Aug , Sep , Oct , Nov , Dec

Distribution

USA: TX
Native Distribution: From south Texas south through Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to South America as far as Peru and Brazil.
Native Habitat: Thickets, brushland (matorral), and palm groves
USDA Native Status: L48(N), VI (N?)

Growing Conditions

Water Use: Medium
Light Requirement: Part Shade
Soil Moisture: Dry
Soil Description: Sandy, Sandy Loam, Medium Loam, Clay Loam, Clay, Limestone. Well-drained.
Conditions Comments: Half of the winters in the Austin area are mild enough for Barbados cherry to keep its leaves. It is useful as a dense screening hedge that may be left soft, sheared, or as a specimen. Birds quickly gobble up its bright, edible fruit and adult butterflies feed on the nectar. Standard tall and dwarf spreading varieties exist.

Benefit

Use Ornamental: Blooms ornamental, Fruits ornamental, Attractive, Hedges, Accent tree or shrub, Patio pot plant, Ground cover, Mass planting
Use Wildlife: Nectar-insects, Fruit-birds, Fruit-mammals, Browse.
Use Food: Fruit, referred to as acerola cherries, eaten and used for juice throughout the worlds tropics and increasingly in temperate areas as well. Very high in Vitamin C.
Conspicuous Flowers: yes
Attracts: Birds , Butterflies
Nectar Source: yes
Deer Resistant: No

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA)

Malpighia glabra is a larval host and/or nectar source for:

Brown-banded Skipper (Timochares ruptifasciata) Larval Host Learn more at BAMONA

White-patched Skipper (Chiomara georgina) Larval Host Learn more at BAMONA

Florida Duskywing (Ephyriades brunnea) Larval Host Learn more at BAMONA

Cassius Blue (Leptotes cassius) Larval Host Learn more at BAMONA