Adopt-a-Tree Is Back in Miami-Dade

August 24, 2022

Jackfruit

Ready to plant new trees – including tropical fruits like jackfruit or carambola – in your backyard? Trees provide shade and reduce air conditioning bills, provide habitat for wildlife, absorb excess rainwater and remove carbon dioxide from the air. And if you qualify, they’re free!

The final Adopt-a-Tree event of 2022 takes place Sat., Sept.. 24 at South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center (10950 SW 211 St, Cutler Bay), where Miami-Dade County single-family and duplex homeowners can get up to two free trees a year. For this event, if you’re eligible, you can choose from the following trees:
   •   Jackfruit, known for their huge fruits with arils that taste like banana,
   •   Carambola, also known as starfruit, which can be sweet or tart
   •   Locustberry, a flowering shrub that provides cover for birds and is a larval host plant for Florida duskywing butterflies
   •   Jamaican caper, a shrub or small tree that provides food and cover for wildlife and serves as larval host plant for Florida white butterflies
   •   Crabwood, a native shrub or small tree
   •   Firebush, a flowering shrub or small tree with orange flowers that provides significant food and cover for wildlife

Residents can pre-register online here and skip the line at Adopt-a-Tree sites. At this event, the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department will be exchanging high-efficiency showerheads and up to three energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs free for those residents who bring their old showerheads and incandescent light bulbs to the event (while supplies last). To qualify, participants must present photo ID listing their residential property address or present other identification like a utility bill. Renters qualify with permission from the property owner. Trees are on a first-come, first-served basis. Find out more here.

Learn about planting trees here.