Florida Native Plant Society Blog

The Mexican firebush, Gumbo-limbo tree, and stokes aster may not seem similar but all three plants are featured in either of two botanic gardens situated at the University of Florida/IFAS Indian River Research and Education Center near Fort Pierce. The plants are native to Florida, require a minimum amount of care and were carefully selected and strategically placed for high aesthetic value. More than 100 plants will be studied in “Florida Native Landscaping,” an upper division environmental horticulture course, the plants may be used in a wide array of landscapes. Offered to degree-seeking and non-degree seeking students at the UF Fort Pierce campus, many industry professionals, nursery owners and state employees have completed the course. Registration for “Florida Native Landscaping” is taking place now for spring semester 2012. The course will begin Wednesday, Jan. 11, 3:30 until 6:30 p.m., and will continue each Wednesday through mid-April. “Florida Native Landscaping” is...

Man-in-the-ground ( Ipomoea microdactyla ), fantastically beautiful morning glory for southernmost Florida. A post by Roger L. Hammer Most everyone is familiar with morning-glories in the genus Ipomoea, and certainly everyone reading this has even eaten Ipomoea batatas, the common sweet potato. The Morning-Glory Family (Convolvulaceae) is well-represented in Florida, with 67 species in fourteen genera. Of those, twenty-four species are naturalized exotics, and four species are endemic to Florida, found nowhere else. The genus Ipomoea is the largest in the family, with twenty-five species and one naturally-occurring hybrid of two native species. Exactly half of the species (13) in Florida are native. Only two species are rare enough to be listed as endangered by the state of Florida, and these are the rockland morning-glory ( Ipomoea tenuissima ) and man-in-the-ground ( Ipomoea microdactyla ). Both are on the northern extreme of their natural range in Florida, and both are re...

Figure 1. Bignonia capreolata , note the tubular flowers and two opposite leaves. Photo credit: Stan Shebs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ File:Bignonia_capreolata_1.jpg This post is one of a series from Botany professor Nisse Goldberg's students at Jacksonville University. Student author: Rebecca Clark Common Name: Crossvine Scientific Name: Bignonia capreloata L. Bignonia capreolata or crossvine belongs to the Bignonia family and is found throughout the central to northern parts of the state. It is a woody, semi-evergreen vine, or liana, that can grow to be as long as 50 feet, using tendrils to attach to surfaces. Crossvine is found in forests, swamps, hammocks, fencerows, and limestone escarpments. Crossvine is a relatively low-maintenance plant. The plant has low to medium water needs and is drought tolerant. It does do well in moist, well-drained, and acidic soil but can tolerate other soil conditions. The best flowering occurs in full sun even though the plant can...

Blanketflowers attract pollinators to your yard. By Peg Lindsay, secretary FNPS I moved to Florida about 10 years ago, from the state of Delaware.  The summer climate there is much the same as in Florida – hot and humid.  So I expected that the familiar garden plants I knew and loved would grow just as well here in Florida.  I went through several bottles of anti-fungal chemicals before I decided that, although I could coax those zinnias to bloom, gardening with chemicals was not for me, nor good for the environment.  Florida was lush and green before these chemicals could be commercially produced.  In fact, the name La Florida, given to this land by Ponce de Leon in 1513, refers to the amazing abundance and diversity of the wild flowering plants he observed here.  With the encouragement of my friends, I decided to try some Florida wildflowers in my garden. The first native wildflower I added to my garden was Indian Blanketflower, Gaillardia pulchel...

Figure 1. The threatened Water Sundew (Drosera intermedia). Photo taken by: Noah Elhardt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Drosera_intermedia_ne1.jpg This post is one of a series from Botany professor Nisse Goldberg's students at Jacksonville University. Student author: Keenan Carpenter. Allow me to introduce you to an odd little group of plants of the genus Drosera , otherwise known as the Sundews. The Sundews belong to larger family group Droseraceae which encompasses the rest of the carnivorous/insectivorous plants. There are five species of Sundew found here in Florida: The Pink Sundew ( Drosera capillaris ), the threatened Spoon-Leaved or Water Sundew ( Drosera intermedia ), the Dwarf Sundew ( Drosera brevifolia ) , the Thread-Leaved Sundew ( Drosera filiformis ), and Tracy’s Sundew ( Drosera tracyi ). Figure 2. A common flower form seen among the members of Drosera. Photo taken by: Denis Barthel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DroseraKenneallyiFlora.jpg Sunde...

Barbara Jackson, environmental activist and president of the FNPS Ixia Chapter. Photo from A Lesson in Outreach By Barbara Jackson, President, FNPS, Ixia Chapter “Nothing Is Ever Easy at the Shipyards” This statement, from an environmental consultant in Jacksonville, has proven to be completely true. He should know. He has been involved in the Shipyards for over fifteen years, advising the City of Jacksonville and others about this almost forty-acre site. Luckily for our Ixia Chapter, he gave us free advice as we attempted to plant a wildflower garden at the Shipyards. The Shipyards is in downtown Jacksonville and is situated on the St. Johns River. It was a working shipyard from the 1850’s until 1992. After its closure, two different companies purchased the land with the idea of development, only to be defeated by the economy. It was then claimed by the City of Jacksonville. The land sat idle for years, used for downtown event over-flow parking, surrounded by a chain link fe...

Figure 1. Trumpet vine flowers. Photo credit: Stan Shebs taken at the Desert Demonstration Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada, May 2003 This post is one of a series from Botany professor Nisse Goldberg's students at Jacksonville University. Student author: Tayler Massey The trumpet vine, otherwise known as Campsis radicans , is a plant you’ve probably seen many times and don’t even realize you’ve seen it! The trumpet vine is a native plant to Florida, but can also be found in many areas throughout the eastern, southeastern, and southwestern parts of the United States. The plant can survive at any time during the year, if it is given the right conditions to grow. The trumpet vine grows best in coarse to medium grain soils with neutral pH levels. So long as the soil remains moist, the trumpet vine does not need an abundance of water, but it does need a great deal of sunlight. It is best if planted in the open rather than in the shade. Once established the trumpet vine is very tol...

By Buford C. Pruitt, Jr. In the summer of 2010, I approached Florida environmental agency staff at a Little Orange Creek Working Group meeting about volunteering to cut down and poison several species of invasive exotic trees (paper mulberry, Chinaberry, and Chinese tallow) that had colonized four spoil islands within the marshland in McIntosh Cove on the west side of Orange Lake. I also wanted to transplant from my yard some volunteer seedlings of black cherry, sweetgum, live oak, sugarberry, and cabbage palm in order to provide competition to discourage the three Chinese exotics from re-invading. I also wanted to provide some forested habitat on the islands that might possibly be used for nesting by the lake’s water birds. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission staff member Bruce Jaggers responded that the spoil islands were a byproduct of FWC’s effort to scrape down muck sediments from an adjacent area of Orange Lake. This would expose sandier sediments that would provid...