Blue Porterweed

Description

Botanical Name:    Stachytarpheta jamaicensis

Common Name:     Blue Porterweed, Joee

Description:    First off, this is the Florida native blue porterweed. Please do not plant the Category II invasive, non-native Stachytarpheta cayennensis/urticifolia. How to tell the difference between the two is talked about below.

Blue porterweed is a gorgeous groundcover. It’s a fast grower that matures at 1 – 3 feet tall x 2 – 4 feet wide. Its light blue/purple flowers bloom late spring into summer in our area. Further south they can bloom almost year round. This wildflower is considered a perennial in our area, so it will go dormant in the winter. If it’s a very cold winter, you might want to mulch the top of the root zone. To see where in Florida it’s native to, click here:  Atlas of Florida Plants.

Its native habitat is in coastal dunes, shell mounds, dry mesic hardwood forests, and disturbed areas in sun to part sun. Plant it in well-drained sand, clay, loam, or calcareous soils. It does not like soggy soils. It is drought tolerant after becoming established.

Per the Florida Wildflower Foundation:  ‘Blue porterweed’s diminutive tubular flowers are purplish-blue with a white “eye.” They are born on long, narrow spikes. Flowers open for only one day and won’t open on very cloudy days. Leaves are dark green and ovate to lanceolate with serrate margins. They are oppositely arranged. Stems are branched and angled. Seeds are inconspicuous nutlets.’

Its trailing habit means it’ll be very pretty grown in containers. But, again, it’ll need some winter protection.

Blue porterweed is the host plant for the Tropical buckeye (Junonia evarete), a pollinator magnet, and a nectar source for lots of butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, and native bees. It’s both deer and rabbit resistant.

Not salt tolerant of flooding by salty or brackish water. Has a moderate tolerance to salt wind and spray.

This plant in 1-gallon containers is 5 – 15 inches tall.

So how do you know when you’re looking at the native porterweed versus the invasive porterweed? The easiest tell is the growth habit. The native grows as a groundcover while the non-native is a very upright grower. Now, that works best when looking at a mature plant because the young native does grow upright first, then starts growing outwards as it ages. Another tell is the leaves. The leaves of the non-native have a heavy quilted look to them, while the native leaves are slightly quilted and not so heavy looking. The native’s bloom are a lighter blue color while the non-native usually has much darker blue/purple color.

Plant Lore:  Most of the porterweed is edible to humans. It was used by the Native Americans as tea and as medicine. As always, please confirm for yourself before eating any wild plants. The generic name is taken from the Greek stachys, meaning “spike,” and tarphys, meaning “thick,” referring to the thickened flowerspike typical of the genus. (ethnobotanical information provided by Roger Hammer).

Florida Zones 8b – 11