(Coyore, Macaw Palm)

This small, graceful, but heavily armed palm tree is found in rain forests and seasonally dry woodlands of Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, and the Lesser Antilles.

Borne atop a single, slender, gray to tan trunk that brandishes numerous long black spines, the enormous, arching, ferny leaves have numerous narrowly lance-shaped leaflets. The leaflets arise from a long central axis known as a rachis. The rachis and the undersides of the leaves are also heavily armed, as is the long leaf stem ("petiole")....

(Begonialeaf Alangium, Chinese Alangium)

Lovely green leaves with short pointed lobes adorn the zig-zagged branches of Chinese alangium. Blooming in early summer and again in mid-autumn, the small oval fruits turn dark blue in autumn, too. A large shrub to small tree that is evergreen in frost-free climates but deciduous elsewhere, it is native to a large expanse of southern Asia's Himalayas eastward into the highlands of southeast Asia. Natural variant forms can also be found in eastern Africa.

The leaves are rounded when young, having...

(Alcantarea)

No tropical garden is complete without a giant alcantarea! Larger than a bushel basket, the rosette of strappy light green leaves eventually forms a towering red flower stalk with curving yellow bracts and ivory flowers. This evergreen perennial bromeliad is a lithophyte (growing among and upon rocks) native to the montane cliffs in extreme southeastern Brazil.

Each leaf is light green, occasionally with speckles or a casting of gray, and strap-like. It tapers to a soft point while the base...

(Alcantarea, Fragrant Alcantarea)

No tropical garden is complete without a fragrant alcantarea! Larger than a bushel basket, the rosette of strappy light green and silver-banded leaves eventually forms a towering red flower stalk with canary yellow flowers. This evergreen perennial bromeliad is a lithophyte (growing among and upon rocks) native to the montane cliffs in extreme southeastern Brazil.

Each pointed, strappy leaf is light green to silver with phantom bandings. It tapers to a soft point while the base of the leaf congregates...

(Colicroot, Yellow Colicroot)

An ankle- to shin-high flower stem carrying bright yellow blossoms above a foliage rosette is indicating of the yellow colicroot. This herbaceous perennial is native to the American Southeast, from Savannah, Georgia to New Orleans and south to the Florida Keys. It naturally grows in pinelands, bogs, wet ditches and seasonally flooded prairies.

The leaves arise from the ground to create a basal rosette of attractive light green leaves. Leaf blades are narrow, pointed lances with parallel veins,...

(Colicroot)

A weed-like rosette of bright green leaves is overlooked until the colicroot produces a wiry flower stem in spring. This herbaceous perennial is native to the American Southeast's coastal plain, a naturally occurring hybrid between the southern colicroot (Aletris obovata) and yellow colicroot (Aletris lutea) where their natural ranges overlap. It naturally grows in moist pinelands, damp grasslands and roadside ditches. Up until the 19th century, roots of these plants were dug up...

(Candleberry, Candlenut, Kukui)

Handsome foliage that is maple-like and a frosty gray and green, candlenut produces flushes of pretty white flowers year 'round and crops of green fruits that have dark seeds rich in flammable oils. A tropical, evergreen tree that has many economic uses, it is native to the lowland forests of Southeast Asia and the southwestern Pacific. Although the state tree of Hawaii, it is not native and is actually considered quite invasive there and in other tropical regions. It attains a rounded, spreading...

(Seashore Palm)

One of the most salt and drought tolerant palms, Allagoptera arenaria, or seashore palm, is a beautiful tropical palm from the coastal regions of Brazil. Based on fossil records, it is also regarded as the most ancient of palms, a predecessor to all others. It maintains a relatively small size, so it is suitable for dune stabilization, landscapes and containers.

Long pinnate (feather-like) leaves emerge directly from an underground stem and at many angles giving it a fluffy, mounded...

(Allamanda)

Allamanda is a small genus of 12 species of evergreen climbers and shrubs native to the tropical areas of Central and South America; however it has escaped cultivation and naturalized throughout the tropics.

Habit varies from species to species. Allamanda can have a shrubby habit, long and arching branches or be twining woody vines. The bark is commonly brown, furrowed on mature stems and yellow-green on younger branches. These emit a milky irritating sap when broken. The leaves...

(Allamanda, Cherries Jubilee Allamanda)

Cherries Jubilee Allamanda is an tropical evergreen climbing shrub growing from 5 to 10 feet in height. This hybrid is an excellent clambering shrub for full sun and coastal exposures. The bell-shaped flowers are a muted salmon and burgundy with a dark red throat and blooms nearly year-round in tropical climates. Hummingbirds may check out the flowers.

Give the Cherries Jubilee allamanda a full to partial sun exposure in a well draining soil. Overly alkaline or dry sandy soil will result in...