Florida Native Plant Society Blog

Little Talbot Island by Shirley Denton Florida has so many wonderful parks and wild places to visit. Show your support by visiting a bunch of them this year. The parks are working on slimmer budgets these days so your visits not only help them balance the budgets, but greater use also helps them justify their existence to the budget deciders in the state government. You can also support your state parks by volunteering on a regular basis and also by letting your state representatives know how you feel about our wonderful state parks. Recently on Facebook, John M. sent us a message: "Next week two of us from Birmingham Botanical Gardens will be traveling from Birmingham to Lee, FL, then to Florida Caverns State Park, and finally to the Pensacola area to participate in a sarracenia rescue. We are interested in visiting some botanically interesting areas along the way. Might you have any suggestions? Kind thanks, John Instead of trying to answer the question myself, ...

Diary of an Island Hopper Written by Richard Brownscombe, edited by Laurie Sheldon February 17, 2012 Miami to the Exumas Today we pushed off the dock and embarked on the first and longest leg of our journey - the crossing from the Miami River to Nassau. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a moment of boredom in the 16 hours it took to reach our destination, which we spent eagerly anticipating the next week’s adventures and soaking up our new surroundings. As our boat plowed through the glassy blue, two varieties of flyingfish (Atlantic and Oceanic two-wing) leapt ahead of us, using their long pectoral fins to clear a floating mat of gulfweed.  Porpoises darted alongside and under the bow until they finally ran out of their seemingly inexhaustible energy. February 18, 2012 R/V Coral Reef II - our transportation and 10-day home We finally reached the Great Bahamas Banks and felt like we were in a tropical oasis. The carbonate limestone platform is only 25 meters deep,...