• Florida is home to more than 2,800 native plants.florida adventure image by feisty from Fotolia.com
  
  Florida gardeners eager to create low-maintenance, high-performance landscapes can look to the Sunshine State's native plants and wildflowers. More than 2,800 species of wildflowers and native plants grow in Florida, according to Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Adapted to Florida's soils, they're resistant to the pests and diseases that afflict many non-native plants. They also tolerate--depending on their natural habitats--Florida's heat, frost, torrential rains or long droughts.
  
  

Vines

• Groundnut (Apios americana) is a perennial vine native to the thickets and moist, shady areas throughout Florida. In the heat of summer, groundnut vine produces dense, fragrant clusters of reddish-purple to maroon, pea-like blossoms that draw butterflies to the garden. Its cooked tubers and seeds are edible, according to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Groundnut vine is a good choice for wet, shady garden areas where little else will grow.
  
  A 20-foot vine, trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) has deep green leaves and red spring and summer flowers. Hummingbirds find the blooms hard to resist, says University of Florida Extension professor Edward F. Gilman, Ph.D. This honeysuckle grows quickly. It flowers most profusely in full sun and grows in a wide range of soils, but struggles in dry, sandy locations.
  
  

Ground Covers

• Dichondra (Dichondra carolensis) is a hammock-hugging plant found across Florida. A mat-forming perennial growing up to 3 inches high, it has round, bright green leaves and small, white to pale green spring flowers. While it makes an attractive ground cover, dichondra can spread to become a weed in lawns.
  
  A salt-tolerant, sun-loving ground cover common on Florida's coastal sand dunes, railroad vine (Ipomoea pes-caprae) grows 6 inches high. A single plant can spread as much as 75 feet. From summer to fall, the vine has purple-centered, pinkish-lavender blooms. Like other morning glory flowers, they open in the morning and close by noon.
  
  

Shrubs

• Eastern coralbean (Erythrina herbacea) is a 6-foot, thorny shrub in the pea family. Its large, arrow-shaped green leaves are deciduous. This shrub is native to the acidic, well-drained soils of Florida's coastal plains and pinewoods. Emerging before its leaves in spring, the plant's red, tubular blooms produce black pods that open to show their bright red, toxic seeds. The plant retains the seedpods for months, notes the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Coralbean likes sun to partial shade and dry, sandy soil.
  
  American beautybush (Callicarpa americana) is an 8-foot, deciduous shrub of northern and central Florida's hammocks and fertile woodlands. In late spring, clusters of small, lavender flowers line its branches before giving way to autumn's brilliant, magenta berries. Beautybush prefers sun to partial shade and well-drained, moist sand or clay.