Gaura angustifolia

Gaura is popular with many wildlife gardeners for its ability to attract bees and butterflies. Plants bought in nurseries are generally of the species Gaura lindheimeri, often sold as Butterfly Gaura. G. lindheimeri is native to Southern Texas and Mexico, but Florida has its own native species, Gaura angustifolia, which is also native to much of the Deep South.

G. angustifolia, also known as Southern Beeblossom and Wild Gaura, grows in dry sandy soils and is frequently found along roadsides. As a single specimen viewed from a distance, the plant seems weedy and the flowers inconsequential. Up close, though, the flowers are delicate and lovely, and when a large area like a median strip fills with hundreds of these plants, the effect can be breathtaking.

Part of the Evening Primrose family (Onagraceae), gaura flowers open as white blooms in the evening, turning a soft rosy pink overnight before fading the next afternoon.These plants can grow up to 5 feet tall, and are covered in flowers along the graceful stems. Bees are especially drawn to these blooms, although butterflies are known to visit them as well.

Wild Gaura was identified by André Michaux, a French explorer and botanist who spent a great deal of time in the Merritt Island area in 1788. Michaux came to America to find species of trees that might be used to re-forest France’s depleted woodlands. He was close friends with William Bartram and helped to identify several new plant species that even the Bartrams had missed in their travels, such as Gaura angustifolia, which literally means “Narrow-leaved Gaura”.