Ixora
The old South Florida favorite ixora (Ixora spp.) is a year-round flowering plant that shouldn’t be put into the old-fashioned category. This sun-loving shrub bears clusters of tubular flowers in Central and South Florida. Sometimes called Flame of the woods, Ixora is a member of the Rubiacea family, which includes coffee, gardenia, firecracker vine, and pentas. While using scientific names to identify plants can help avoid confusion between common names, figuring out how to pronounce a word written in Latin can be tricky. So if you struggle to remember, Ixora is pronounced “icks-SORE-ah.”
CharacteristicsOne of the best things about Ixora is that it flowers throughout the year! Each flower cluster can last between 6 and 8 weeks giving your landscape long-lasting and lovely color. Ixora varieties offer a nice selection of colors, including bright red, orange, yellow, pink, and white. The leaves of this tropical perennial are bronze when young and shift to glistening dark green as the plant ages. A compact, densely-branching shrub, Ixora is ideal for planting as a hedge, border, screen, or featured specimen—depending on which variety you select.
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