Growing wild on our property zone 8 north central Florida under the shade of a massive Live Oak. The pink flowers are so tiny my camera can't take a clear up close photo but the color pops from these small flowers & grabs your attention from 10 feet away. They rise well above the plant itself. You can see the fruit on the same stems as the flowers & I say fruit as they were not hard shelled seed pods. I love everything about this plant! As soon as we have an ID I will add it to the DB.

I wonder if it could be a variety of Agalinis?

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/wildf...

This is Jewels of Opar (Talinum paniculatum). It is fairly invasive but I love this plant! It makes little tiny red seed pods that look like little jewels.

Good eye Dave! I should have recognized that plant ... commonly called "Jewels of Opar".

Ann: It's shown in Alachua County just south of you. It's apparently here in Volusia County as well.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/co...

I think that is Talinum paniculatum Jewels of Opar
Oops got beat to it. I need to learn to scroll all the way before answering.

Right you are Dave! And ; there is something about it that is simply charming. I'm finding info. which says it's edible; that the leaves taste like spinach --- cooked or raw. I am going to pursue confirming that it's okay to eat.

Thanks Lin. Yes, it appears to be native to much of the south including Fl.

Jay ~~~~ I knew you would be in here. Yup. Dave beat you to it this time. ;-)

The nativity of this plant is confusing. USDA shows it native to every state that it is in, Bonap shows it as adventive in every state that it is in.
http://plants.usda.gov/java/pr...
http://www.bonap.org/BONAPmaps...

Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants say it is not native to Florida
http://www.florida.plantatlas....

Jay, I don't understand. Looking at the map color key for BONAP it indicates "Species native, but adventive in state". That statement contradicts itself. ?????

And then... take a look at this:
http://www.efloras.org/florata... which says:

Talinum paniculatum is generally thought to be native west of the Mississippi River and adventive eastward, where it often is weedy. In many herbaria, specimens of T. paniculatum are filed as T. patens. Talinum spathulatum (T. chrysanthum) sometimes is recognized separately, but the few differences are minor and inconsistent, and almost all degrees of intergradation occur over much of the range.

Then there is this but it only deals with south Florida status:
http://www.regionalconservatio...

Then this lists it as native:
http://www.discoverlife.org/mp...

So what do we conclude from this? Is it real or is it Memorex?

That is why I said it was confusing. As far as the Bonap key is concerned "native but adventive in state" means that it is native to North America but adventive in that particular state. But Bonap shows it adventive in every state so where is it native too? I think I will e-mail them to clarifiy it.

Oh that would be lovely Jay. I didn't know we could email them. You are so much more versed in this than I so i would appreciate it if you did that & let me know what they say. I have made statements in the comments section for the plant as to it's native status based on the USDA gov. profile as well as Wikipedia but will change them if we need to.

And this listing from Wiki shows a different "Native status"

Native distribution

T. paniculatum is native to North America (in Mexico; and in southern Arizona, southern Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, southern New Mexico, and the Carolinas in the U.S); South and Mesoamerica (in Bolivia, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela); and the Caribbean (in Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the U.S. Virgin Islands).[1]

I know, I saw that but I think Wiki is not as reliable as BONAP or the USDA info. Jay did get a reply back from BONAP & I have listed their info. as to native status in the comments section for the plant. But thanks for the info. Moonhowl.

Jewels of Opar (Talinum paniculatum)

I have noticed that Wiki tends to paraphrase info from other sites...they do list their sources however.