Plant Name: Bahama Manjack Botanical Name: Varronia bahamensis Description (growth habits, light requirements & care): Medium sized shrub to small tree. Loves a full sun location, tolerates hot summers and harsh light conditions, but will also grow in light shade. How you help by planting this: Attract lots of pollinators! Bees, butterflies, and moths love its nectar, while its dense nature offers great cover for wildlife. Flower and Fruit (color, characteristics, season): White with yellow. Fruit red. Pairs well with: Bahama Coffee, Jamaican Caper, Coontie, Shiny Leaf Wild Coffee, and other plants in the Pineland collection. Important Info per IRC: Bahama Manjack - South Florida History and Distribution: Ranked as presumed extirpated in Rare Plants of South Florida (Gann et al. 2002; pp 73-74) based on a single collection and several observations in the vicinity of Florida City Pineland in 1979, but likely destroyed there by construction of a government complex. Subsequently cultivated at the northwest corner of the Florida City Pineland by Miami-Dade County, presumably from Bahamian germplasm. Rediscovered in the wild in 2021 by IRC Ecological Restoration Team Leader Alex Seasholtz at the Moreno Pineland near SW 222nd Street and 137th Avenue in Miami-Dade County. A single clump was found growing out of undegraded oolitic limestone.
