Common Coastal Plants in Florida: A Guide to Planting and Maintenance

"If you are challenged by trying to garden on property facing salt or brackish water, here's help."--Southern Living

"This is the homeowner’s complete tome to coastal (read that ‘salt-tolerant’) plants. . . . A great guide for home or office areas."--Palm Beach Post

Common Coastal Plants in Florida is a practical guide to identifying, obtaining, planting, and maintaining the plants most frequently found along the fringes and sandy shores of the Sunshine State. Black, white, and red mangrove, sea ox-eye daisy, saltgrass, marsh-elder and beach-elder, needle rush and black rush, smooth cordgrass, salt jointgrass, marsh-hay, bitter panicum and sea-oats are just a handful of the plants profiled in this beautiful and useful volume.

Complete descriptions of Florida’s beach, dune, and wetland communities and a guide to selection and cultivation of plant species appropriate for each type help gardeners assess the needs of their coastal properties. Plant characteristics, plant availability, planting and maintenance guidelines, commercial sources for vegetation, and suggestions for additional reading provide basic hands-on, how-to information. Forty color photographs and 35 drawings serve as a convenient, user-friendly identification guide for gardeners and beachcombers alike.

Florida’s fragile coastal communities are increasingly threatened by erosion--the result of weather, rising sea levels, and human impact on the environment. The editors of this volume explain how plant habitats help protect these areas, functioning as sand or soil traps and stabilizers, providing food and shelter for wildlife, contributing to water-quality maintenance, and beautifying our state.

Since its first appearance in 1990, Common Coastal Plants has been an authoritative and popular guide. This new edition is sure to prove equally useful to the ever-increasing number of homeowners along Florida's coastline and to anyone interested in protecting one of the state’s most important natural resources.