Photo: Douglas Goldman, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Florida Swamp Privet

Forestiera segregata

Also called Florida privet, Florida wild privet, southern privet, inkbush, Forestiera porulosa.

A tough native shrub of southeastern coasts that shrugs off salt wind and drought, with blue-black fruit that ripens early for songbirds.

Wildlife valueDrought tolerantSalt tolerantHedge or screen

Type: Shrub
Mature height: 5–15 ft
USDA zones: 8–10
Growth rate: Medium
Sun: Full, Part
Soil moisture: Dry, Average
Grows wild in: The coast, sandy barrens, the forest understory and rocky ground
Native range: Florida, Georgia and South Carolina See what is native in your state

Hardiness zones Find your zone by ZIP code

Florida swamp privet is a shrub or small tree of the olive family with small, smooth leaves. It keeps them through winter and drops them just as the new growth begins. It grows near the coast from South Carolina and Georgia through Florida to the Keys, and on to Bermuda and the West Indies. There it is called ink-bush, since its bitter fruit stains skin and cloth. Georgia lists it as rare. Use it for a clipped or natural hedge near the coast, where it shrugs off salt wind and drought.

Size, growth and what to expect

Florida swamp privet grows at a moderate rate, about a foot and a half a year in our growth estimator, after a slow first year from seed. It makes a dense shrub or small tree of 5 to 15 feet and 5 to 10 feet wide, on several short, crooked trunks with pale, smooth bark. Its leaves are three quarters of an inch to 2 inches long, with smooth edges.

Tiny yellowish green flowers in tight clusters open along last year's twigs in February and March, before the new leaves. Bees visit them, and so does the rare atala butterfly in south Florida. The fruit ripens from late spring into summer, a waxy blue-black oval a quarter to three eighths of an inch long. Warblers, bluebirds, mockingbirds and vireos eat it, and it ripens before most other wild fruit.

Its homes are coastal hammocks, scrub, dunes, shell mounds and pine rocklands. NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in South Carolina, at the north end of its range.

How to grow Florida Swamp Privet

Florida swamp privet grows in full sun or part shade. It takes sandy or limestone soil, even alkaline soil, and ground that is moist, flooded now and then, or dry. Once rooted it needs no watering. It stands salt wind, but not flooding by salt water. Set plants 5 feet apart for a hedge and keep them 5 feet from a wall. At its size it can go within 15 feet of overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them in the cool months, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the crown at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the stems. Clean the pulp from ripe fruit, sow the seed just covered with soil, and set the pot in full sun. In one test it began to sprout in a week, and 89 percent came up within seven weeks.

Water weekly through the first summer, then leave it to the rain. It makes a good hedge, clipped or left natural, and needs no other pruning. It seeds itself in gardens, so pull the seedlings you do not want.

Plants are male or female, and only females bear fruit, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. Bees and other insects carry the pollen. A plant bug described in 2012 can spot and strip the leaves of hedges in south Florida.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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