Florida Native Plant Society Blog

A FNPS Education Committee Project By  Debra L. Klein, Chair with members Richard Brownscombe, Ellen Broderick and Kirsi Johnson Introduction A Walk in the Florida Dry Prairie began serendipitously at the May 2014 FNPS conference while at the Saturday night dinner social.  The Education Committee had an impromptu meeting with Richard Brownscombe, Ellen Broderick, joined by Kellie Westervelt, Cammie Donaldson and myself in attendance.  The idea of filming a field trip was floated with proposals of who should guide and what location.  Cammie suggested that the Friends of Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park had asked Roger Hammer to guide a field trip planned for November 1, 2014.  Subsequently, Craig Huegel was also asked to join. Christina Evans of both the Florida Native Plant Society and Friends of KPPSP suggested that we use Jennifer Brown of Into Nature Films to do the video shoot. Work Plan With the whole team assembled, the Educa...

The welcome sign for Hickory Lake Scrub. I visited Hickory Lake Scrub, a 57-acre preserve,  in May and I loved that I found quite a number of plants that I'd never seen before. A scrub habitat is not to be rushed through.  To begin to appreciate it, you need to slow down —way down. Besides the plants there is a rich ecosystem filled with critters.  It's fun to examine the tracks in the sandy soil to guess what has taken place. Here are two endemic plants that I found: Scrub morning glory ( Bonamia grandiflora ) Scrub morning glory with its pale lavender flowers. Bonamia grandiflora distribution The scrub morning glory or lady's nightcap is obviously a member of the morning glory family (Convolvulaceae), but it belongs to a different genus than the majority of  the morning glories — Bonamia not Ipomoea . This is the only species in this genus native to the US. It is threatened and endangered and various sources state that there are only 10...