Perennial Peanut is not "Florida-Friendly"

In general, I agree with the "9 Florida-Friendly Principles: 1) Right Plant, Right Place; 2) Water Efficiently; 3) Fertilize Appropriately; 4) Mulch; 5) Attract Wildlife; 6) Manage Yard Pests Responsibly; 7) Recycle; 8) Reduce Storm Water Runoff; and 9) Protect the Waterfront. The overall goal is to reduce nonpoint source pollution through proper fertilization, irrigation, and pesticide use on residential and commercial landscapes."

BUT, over the years I have been critical of the "Florida-Friendly" plant list since only about half of the named plants are actually native to Florida. As a botanist and naturalist, I think that the percentage of Florida natives should be 75% or higher. In most cases, though, the non-native plants are "okay" even though they don't support native pollinators or native birds as well as natives do. 

One exception, in my opinion, is the very aggressive perennial peanut or grassnut (Arachis glabrata), which is in the bean family (Fabaceae) and like other members of this family they fix nitrogen* with the aid of their symbiotic Rhizobium bacteria, so they can grow well in poor soil. 

Perennial Peanut should be removed from "Florida-Friendly" plant list

An UF/IFAS post on Facebook in June 2026

For years, UF/IFAS has been pushing perennial peanut as Florida-Friendly...

From the IFAS Perennial Peanut Fact Sheet: "Perennial peanut was first introduced from Brazil in 1936 and since that time no insect, disease, or nematode pests have been identified that cause economic loss. Since its introduction, it has not spread into natural areas or become a nuisance plant in unimproved properties. Rhizomal perennial peanut does not reproduce by seed; therefore, it can’t be carried by birds or wildlife or transported in plant material to unintended areas."

Emphasis is mine. Perhaps IFAS is referring to a specific cultivar when they say "rhizomal perennial peanut," but a check of USF's Atlas of Florida Plants, which shows ranges of both native and non-native plants growing the Florida's wild spaces, indicates that this species has been vouchered as growing wild in 23 counties in Florida. 

The term "vouchered" means that people, usually botanists or ecologists, have collected plants growing in wild or non-cultivated areas and have prepared them by pressing them, usually with flowers and/or fruits with notes on location and habitat. These specimens are recorded and stored in a herbarium, usually at a university or museum and are available for research or reference. 

Perennial peanut has been vouchered in 23 counties in the wild as of 2026

Perennial peanut has been vouchered in 23 counties as growing in the wild
in USF's Atlas of Florida Plants: https://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/ 
(This is a screen capture of their vouchered counties map in June 2026.)

Kew Gardens range map for perennial peanut,
with the purple areas showing where
it's introduced and growing wild.

Even though, "they" say it doesn't produce seeds so it cannot spread. Now it's been vouchered as growing wild in 23 counties from Pensacola to Miami, so it HAS spread. My opinion is that it's only a matter of time before it's classified as invasive and that IFAS should stop pushing it as a sustainable choice and remove it from the Florida-Friendly list before that happens.

Kew Royal Botanic Gardens maintains Plants of the World Online, with native and introduced ranges of all the known plants. The introduced ranges are where the plant has escaped cultivation are shown in purple. For perennial peanut, the introduced areas include Florida, Georgia, Alabama & Louisiana. I've cropped out the rest of the world, but it has also escaped in a few places in Africa.

There are some wonderful native ground covers such as, sunshine mimosa (Mimosa strigillosa) and fogfruit (Phyla nodiflora), for areas that you wish to keep open or you could opt for a low-care Freedom Lawn, where the mowed area is "free" from landscape-wide applications of fungicides, insecticides, herbicides, & synthetic fertilizers. Freedom lawns also receive no or very little irrigation through the year & are also not over-seeded with winter grasses, so they go dormant in the winter. They are mowed much less often, but when they are mowed it's at the highest setting on the mower.

Freedom lawns have healthier soil that better
supports the plants, including grass, that grow there.

Highly maintained & poisoned lawns have reduced soil ecosystems and the turfgrass has short roots, because the synthetic fertilizers & over-irrigation serve as life-support to keep the turf grass alive. Stopping those applications will be a shock to the grass and it will take a few months for the poisons to dissipate, so transformation to a freedom lawn with many types of plants will not be instantaneous. Homeowners can hurry the process by planting some native ground covers in the bare patches that develop or by seeding it with other plants, such as clover.

Reduce the Lawn

There are about four million acres of lawn in Florida and much of it is not used for anything. Replacing much of our unused lawns in our yards and communities with bird-friendly, pollinator-friendly, habitat-building groves of trees and shrubs is another earth-friendly option, because the larger plants actually cool the air through transpiration. Read these articles for more information:

- Transpiration: Forests' most important service
- The importance of oaks
- The value of trees

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt 

*Fixing Nitrogen: Nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient for plant growth even though about 79% of the air is nitrogen gas, N2. The Rhizobium bacteria, which live in root nodules on the legume plant roots, absorb nitrogen gas from the air in the soil and transform it into ammonia (NH3) that converts to ammonium (NH4) which can be used by the plants as a nutrient. In turn, the plants provide the bacteria with sugars. This is a symbiotic relationship since both organisms, the plants & the bacteria, benefit.