Florida Native Plant Society Blog

You can help FNPS while you shop and it won't cost you anything! Use our Amazon links to buy all your merchandise. We have listed books here on the blog and on our website dealing with Florida native plants, native ecosystems, and sustainable landscaping with links to Amazon. If you use our links when you purchase these books, FNPS receives a referral fee. BUT you can also help FNPS when you purchase anything from Amazon. Just use one of our book links to get into Amazon and then search for other items on your list from there. FNPS will receive referral fees for your whole shopping list. See? Wasn't that easy?? Here are some new or interesting books you many be interested in for yourself or as a gift: Principles of  Ecological Landscape Design by Travis Beck Your Florida Guide to Butterfly Gardening:  A guide for the Deep South by Jaret Daniels Attracting Hummingbirds and Butterflies in Tropical Florida by Roger Hammer Everglades Wildf...

Back row: Mark Miller, Pat Moyer, Lowe's employee Sandra; front row: Suzy Callanan and Barbara Wallace. This was a fun event on Saturday, July 5th from 10am-2pm at Lowe's in Estero (southwest Florida).  Coccoloba Chapter representatives, along with UF/IFAS Lee County Master Gardeners, set up a table at Lowe's on Corkscrew Road to explain the importance of native plants, low-impact landscaping, Lee County fertilizer ban, etc. The morning started off rather busy.  The local News-Press ran an article informing readers the volunteers would be at the store to answer gardening questions.  Several customers indicated they came to Lowe's just to talk to volunteers and get information!  One man walked in with a list of questions on a small sheet of paper explaining that his wife sent him down.  When they saw the Slime Monster poster several commented they had seen the commercials and enjoyed them.  One gentleman was really happy (somewhat stunned) to see the ...

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...

Morningside Nature Center is a City of Gainesville Park. For more than 20 years the City of Gainesville, the Friends of Gainesville's Nature Parks, and the Paynes Prairie FNPS Chapter have put on the annual native plant sale at Morningside Nature Center. This event is organized to increase membership in FNPS and/or the Friends of Nature Parks, to increase awareness of native plants, and to raise money for all three organizations. I hadn't been before so I decided to attend on Friday afternoon to experience it for myself. I was not going to purchase many plants--maybe just a few... There was a good turn out for the members-only preview on Friday evening. You couldn't purchase any plants until you showed you membership card and filled out the ordersheet. On Friday afternoon, there is a preview sale for members of FNPS or the Friends of Nature Parks. If you are not a member, you can join on the spot. The system is set up so that you need a sales sheet to car...

Pileated woodpeckers work a red bay ( (Persea borbonia ) before it was killed by the laurel wilt disease. Trees are so important! And to receive the maximum benefits with the least amount of effort, plant a tree native to your region and one that's been bred from local stock.  Here is a post to help with this: Natives for your landscape: an FNPS tool for you . In addition to being beautiful and supporting local wildlife, here are a few of the more quantifiable benefits.   Trees: - clean the air. In 1991, Chicago's 51 million trees “removed an estimated 17 tons of carbon monoxide, 93 tons of sulfur dioxide, 98 tons of nitrogen dioxide, 210 tons of ozone, and 234 tons of particulate matter. They [also] sequestered about 155,000 tons of carbon. ... where trees were large and lush, they could improve air quality by as much as 15 percent during the hottest hours of midday. More trees and bigger trees meant cleaner air." ( What Is a Tree Worth ) - absorb wat...

In Florida if given a chance, Bidens alba will completely take over a disturbed area, but this doesn't mean that it's invasive.  A polka-dotted wasp moth sipping nectar from a bidens floret. For more information see An Exception to the Rules Native plants are NOT invasive.  They belong here and work well within the natural ecosystems. A pioneer plant like beggars' ticks ( Bidens alba ) is certainly aggressive and efficient at completely covering a disturbed site, but after a couple of years, it will give way to other plants in Mother Nature's succession parade, which  depends upon where it's found. The plants that take over could include broom sedge ( Andropogon spp.), goldenrod ( Solidago spp.), dog fennel ( Eupatorium capillifolium ), which then my be replaced by pines and oaks after a few years. Definition: - An invasive exotic plant is a naturalized exotic plant that is expanding its range into natural areas and disrupting naturally occur...