Family: Myrsinaceae (Myrsine Family)

Native range: India.

Description: A shrub or small tree to 15 feet with leathery, lance-shaped leaves ranging from 3 to 6 inches long. New growth is rosy-pink. Small, five-petaled pinkish flowers are borne in clusters from the leaf axils and appear principally in summer but also sporadically throughout the year. These are followed by clusters of small, pink fruit that ripen almost black.

Ecological threat:   Shoebutton ardisia is an exceptionally aggressive and weedy shrub that can form dense populations in the understory of intact, undisturbed hardwood forests. It is occasionally found in pine rockland habitat and is especially abundant on abandoned agricultural land in Everglades National Park known as the Hole-in-the-Donut. Dense thickets of this plant crowd out native plants and cut off natural light levels in the understory of hardwood forests. The fruit are principally bird dispersed but raccoons and opossum also eat the fruit.

Shoebutton ardisia can be mistaken for the closely-related native marlberry, Ardisia escallonioides. Marlberry, however, produces terminal, not axillary, clusters of flowers and fruit, and the new growth is light green, not rose-pink.

Distribution in Florida: Central and southern Florida, including the Florida Keys.

Background: Introduced as a colorful shrub for the urban landscape but no longer commercially cultivated. It is replaced in central and northern Florida by the more cold hardy Ardisia crenata, native to Japan and southern Asia. It too has escaped cultivation.