Native to Hispaniola and Cuba. Extremely heat tolerant. So heat tolerant in fact that it dies back from cold in USDA zone 9! It prefers zones 10-11. Drought tolerant once established. Loves full sun.
Member of the spurge family so it is toxic in all the same ways a poinsettia is. Leaves, roots, stems, flowers, especially seeds. Introduced to my area of the Gulf coast but not considered invasive.
~~Maybe it means "foreign"?~~
I got so caught up in googling "peregrine falcon" that I actually forgot what you said. Anyway - here's this...
Interesting! My Spanish isn't the best, so I didn't know that for species that Peregrina could also mean 'foreign'. The meaning of wandering/travelling makes sense/related to pilgrim