Has anyone tried growing our native basil, Ocimum campechianum? It is native to some of the pine rockland areas in south Florida. It is extremely drought tolerant, in fact, it does not like any irrigation once it is established.
South Florida native basil
I'd never heard of it, but now of course I'm curious. There's not much info in PF, but the entry does have a note from Floridian that it's endangered in FL... so check state regulations before collecting it (seed might be OK, but I'm not sure).
Keep us posted if you find some!
I actually have it in my garden and we have a couple plants in our pineland at Fairchild. I purchased my first plant from a native plant nursery several years ago. Unfortunately the folks who own the nursery retired and the nursery no longer exists. My plants re-seed so through the years, I always have 2-3 plants in my garden. I was just wondering what other people's experiences with this plant had been.
Neat! Do you collect seeds from it? (she asks, hopefully)
amygirl, I've had this basil for about 2 years. I bought it from Florida Native Plants in Sarasota. I've had it growing on the south side of my house since last fall, then I decided I wanted something else there, so I transplanted it into a pot. It suffered during the freezing temps we had last week, but is still alive! I plant on transplanting it under one of my pine trees, I think it will be happier there.