Species description . When Judd and Hall published their description, they believed the plant to be extinct, but in 1987 Kris DeLaney discovered a small population just outside a state forest. Within the next few years, four additional populations were discovered, all on private land. DeLaney's original site was acquired by the state in 1995. The leaves are deciduous, falling in November-December before flowering begins in early January.
Mature plants bloom profusely, with flowers numbering in the tens of thousands.
The fragrant flowers attract legions of insects, including flower flies, bees, wasps and butterflies. Some floral visitors are quite noisy and on sunny mornings plants can be heard as well as smelled from several yards away. The fruit is a drupe about in. Habitat and distribution . Florida ziziphus is known exclusively from yellow sand sites which historically supported sandhill or oak-hickory scrub.