Clusters of highly fragrant tiny yellow-green flowers are borne in December - February, and grape-sized, yellow-orange fruit may develop in April - May (though they are very rare).

[6] It bears small, round, shiny leaves arranged alternately, which are deciduous in the winter dry season.

The first known record of Florida ziziphus was from a single, mysterious, dried herbarium specimen originally collected in 1948 near the city of Sebring in Highlands County, Florida, U.S. Because the precise location of the locality had not been recorded by Ray Garrett, of Avon Park, and because no living plants were known to exist in the wild, the species was presumed extinct.

Agribusiness and unplanned, sprawling commercial development in central and south Florida, along with inadequate conservation and regulatory programs, have decimated Florida's ecosystems and pushed hundreds of native plant and animals species to the brink of extinction.

Of the eight known populations, four are in old pastures, three on degraded sites, and the most recent discovery is in its natural sandhill habitat, found in early April, 2007 by Brett Miley, a Florida ecologist, while photographing other endangered plants.