Locustberry

Rare beauty is the phrase we’d use to describe locustberry, Bysronima lucida. So rare, in fact, that the state of Florida lists it as threatened. Locustberry’s good looks are beyond dispute, especially when in bloom, which is a big chunk of the year.

Locustberry is a shrub or small tree found growing in the wild only in Miami-Dade and the Florida Keys. Both the Delray Beach-based Institute for Regional Conservation and the Florida Natural Area Inventory consider it rare. However, it can be found throughout South Florida as a landscape plant.

It is native to the Sunshine State as well as the Bahamas and most of the Caribbean. The good news is that despite its relative rarity in the wilds of Florida, it seems secure from the threat of extinction probably because of its wide distribution.

Locustberry is a multi-stemmed shrub usually growing between five and 15 feet tall with a spread usually as wide as its height. It can grow into a modest tree as tall as 35 feet.

Its leaves grow opposite of each other. They’re narrow at the stem, becoming progressively wider and round at the tip, sort of like a tear drop. They are simple, entire, meaning no lobes or serrations along the edges, leathery to the touch, and less than two inches long.

Locustberry’s flowers, however, are what catch the eye. Individually, they are small but come in large, terminal clusters of five to 12 flowers. Each is white or pink as it opens, and becomes progressively dark red as it age. The multi-hued blooms add to locustberry’s interest as a landscaping plant, but they also help attract a greater variety of pollinators, particularly butterflies, than they would otherwise. Locustberry blooms through the year, but peaks in spring and summer.

The fruit is berry-like, technically called a drupe, about a half-inch in diameter, fleshy and turns from green to dark red when ripe. It is edible for us human types as well as birds and other animals. How good they taste apparently is a matter of taste. Our favorite Florida forager says they’ve been likened to cranberries by some, to soap by others. The fruit can be eaten out of hand or juiced.

Another plus in the landscaping department: the fruit will remain on the plant after it matures, which helps attract birds and other wildlife.

Locustberry also provides cover for birds and other animals. It is a host for the Florida duskywing butterfly. The flowers provide nectar for multiple butterfly species and is often grown in butterfly gardens.

In places, locustberry has been used medicinally to treat a variety of ailments, according to Eat the Weeds (the website of our favorite Florida forager). The bark is used to make a cough medicine; the berries to treat dysentery and to stop bleeding.

Locustberry typically is found in the rock pinelands of Miami-Dade County and the Keys as well as pine flatwoods.

As we noted earlier, it is a popular shrub for landscaping. It’s used as a specimen planting, in clusters, as a hedge and in natural landscapes and restorations.

It takes to moist soils with high organic content and high pH (high calcium content). It is drought tolerant once established. Locustberry does not tolerate cold weather, so that limits how far north it can be grown.

A taxonomic tale, again from our favorite Florida forager: the genus name comes from two Greek words, byrsa meaning hide, and sema meaning thread. It is a reference to the bark of some species within the classification, Lucida is light, or bright, a reference to locustberry’s leaves.

Locustberry is also known as Long Key locustberry. It is a member of Malpighiaceae, the Barbados cherry family. Locustberry is one of a half dozen or so members of Malpighiaceae in South Florida, according to the Institute for Regional Conservation, but it is the only one that is native.

National Key Deer Refuge also at Oleta River State Park