I was walking through our Demonstration Garden at 25550 Harborview Road in Port Charlotte awhile back and found a relatively new planting of sea oxeye daisy, Borrichia frutescens.
This beautiful native flowering perennial plant is chock full of beneficial characteristics such as salt and drought tolerance. But is its attractiveness — a stunning gray-green foliage and bright yellow flowers — that make this member of the Aster family a real keeper.
While beauty is in the eye of the beholder, some native plants do not have the eye appeal of their more exotic cousins.
The sea oxeye daisy breaks that mold with color, sustainability and function.
The sea oxeye daisy is normally found in coastal areas within saltwater wetlands and areas associated with mangroves. Being a halophyte — a salt-tolerant plant — sea oxeyes can even tolerate occasional brackish or saltwater flooding.
Sea oxeye daisy also nicely adapts to your average landscape as long as it is in full sun. This perennial daisy grows up to 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide with 2-to-3-inch, somewhat succulent, gray-green leaves giving it a dusty miller appearance.