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Barbados Cherry develops into a thick, rounded canopy of fairly delicate foliage up to 2.5 meters in height. It is useful in the landscape as a dense screening hedge that may be left soft, sheared, or as a specimen. Small pink flowers appear periodically from April to October and are followed about one month later by bright red, tart-tasting, one-inch fruits. Barbados Cherry provides food for birds and produces enough fruits for humans also to enjoy. These versatile plants help attract birds to the yard for food and keep them there to nest when they are planted with mid-size native plants and small trees to form an understory.
Barbados Cherry (Malpighia glabra) is also sometimes called Manzanita or Wild Crapemyrtle. The juice of Malpighia glabra is known as Acerola cherry. It is valued for its high Vitamin C content. The demand from consumers who want to get vitamins from whole foods keeps Acerola cherry juice priced well above many others. Acerola is a traditional source of Vitamin C in tropical regions. Texas A&M University’s Aggie Horticulture site lists fruit preserves as current uses along with astringent and fever remedy made from the plant’s bark which is called “Nancebark”. Drugs.com lists traditional uses of Malpighia for dysentery, diarrhea, liver disorders, fever and as astringent. Its content analysis found more Vitamin C than oranges and as much Vitamin A as carrots, plus thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, calcium, iron, bioflavonoids, phosphorus, malic acid, pantothenic acid, potassium, magnesium, zinc, dextrose, fructose, sucrose, protein, fiber, lipids and fatty acids.
Its native range extends south to Peru and Brazil and north to subtropical zones in Texas. The plant is not recommended for zones north of Austin. Barbados Cherry is found in palm groves, as understory at the edges of woodlands, and co-dominant with other small to mid-size shrubs in brushland. Once established in any type of soil, it is extremely drought-tolerant.
The plant provides fruit for fruit-eating native birds during much of the year; and planting it can decrease deaths of birds who eat invasive Nandina domestica berries and die of horrific hemorrhaging from cyanide poisoning when they cannot find native fruit to eat.
Barbados Cherry is now available in commercial garden centers. To protect the integrity of the fruit and to avoid killing butterfly larvae, it is important to purchase from a center that can guarantee the plant has not been treated with systemic pesticide.
It is known to be the larval host for four species of native butterflies. It is a host plant of primary importance to Chiomara georgina “White-patched Skipper”, Ephyriades brunnea “Florida Duskywing”, and Timochares ruptifasciata “Brown-banded Skipper”. The species Leptotes cassius “Cassius Blue” utilizes the plant when in Texas.
As with so many of our native understory plants, habitat destruction does not occur only when a bulldozer initially clears a site; the devastating loss of a place for these butterflies to thrive or even survive occurs with every lawn that has nothing but exotic grass and trees. This offers no shelter or place for butterflies of these species to lay their eggs. One of the most patriotic actions any resident can take is to plant these smaller native plants to return the homes these butterflies have lost. In doing so, the human rewards abound with nutritious fresh fruit, cleaner air, and beauty that calms the senses.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: cywinski
