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Invasives
resemble
potatoes
The inedible Dioscorea bulbifera or air-potato
was introduced as ornament from Asia, writes Clewell in Guide to the Vascular Plants of the
Florida Panhandle. However, another authority says it was
introduced from Africa during the slave trade, although native to Asia. It seems to have found a home in
San Luis Park in Leon County. This is about the size of a small
tangerine, and is of the yam family. It is depicted as being
similar to kudzu in taking over large trees in Florida, and is more and
more common. The University of Florids suggests eradication measures be
taken.
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Deer's
tongue
used in
tobacco
Flowers of this genus Carphephorus,
sometimes known as wild vanilla, are members of the composite
family, and six species grow in the Southeast, area, according to
Godfrey in Aquatic and Wetland
Plants of (the) Southeastern United States (1981, University of
Georgia). These flowers were growing off forest road 106 in the
Apalachicola National Forest and we caught them in the setting sun.
It was written years ago that tons of leaves of the species odoratissimus were being collected
and sold for flavoring smoking tobacco. That's what Duncan and
Foote said in the early 1970s in Wildflowers
of the
Southeastern United States which was one of the first handy
guides to wildflowers in this area of the country.
This is species paniculatus,
and was growing along with the odoratissimus
which has broader leaves at the bottom and pseudoliatris with very narrow
leaves. Such
flowers grow in pine savannas and flatwoods from North Carolina through
Florida's peninsula.
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Butterfly's
proboscis
Sipping nectar from a daisy in Liberty County is one of the many
species of sulphur butterflies on the Eastern seaboard. There are 300
species worldwide and 37 in North America and Canada, according to Rick
Cech in Butterflies of the East
Coast: An Observer's Guide (2005, Princeton University Press). Hibridizations are many. A
butterfly's feet have chemical receptors that react to sweetness and
the proboscis uncoils. Nectar is drawn up by suction created by action
of muscles in the head, according to Cech. Only a small part of a
butterfly's life is spent as an adult.
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Sunset
for the
humming
birds
Autumn sunsets in the Big Bend area of Florida are distractingly
beautiful
especially if you are out in the open and away from the power lines.
We were trying
out our new Nikon D40x digital while the sun made its exit over the
forest near Sumatra.
The camera allows for sepia tones, which accounts for the picture at
the top. With the bright background, it was not possible to retain the
colors in the foreground. The human eye can do this, but can't focus on
the sun for long.
The second sunset was colorized with a change of hues on the computer
It became a sunset for hummingbirds whose attraction for the red
colors sends them to the red flowers,
How would an insect or a
bird view a sunset, with some limited capacity, perhaps, to see the
colors?
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Lake Jackson
still retains
its flowers
While the lake waters are depleted by drought, sunlight brings out
shades of yellow in the lotus blossom in Lake
Jackson in Leon County in mid-June.
The lake, which used to be one of the premier fishing spots for bass in
the country, has suffered from years of low waters, and development has
hedged around it. A recent zoning decision by the Leon County
Commission, against all expert advice, showed a willful and pathetic
ignorance of the natural value of the lake
The yellow lotus, Nelumbo lutea,
is the only lotus
native to The United States. The starchy tubers were used for food by
native
Americans. Considered by some a
weed, it is endangered
in New
Jersey, eliminated by development in Delaware, and
threatened in other states. Lotuses are linked to the Hindu goddess of
prosperity, Laskshmi.
Writes an
anonymous scholar,
"in esoteric Buddhism, the heart of the
beings is like an unopened lotus: when the virtues of the Buddha
develop therein, the lotus blossoms; that is why the Buddha sits on a
lotus bloom."
Also beautifying the lake were the white water lilies Nymphaea odorata which occur in
lakes, cypress ponds and coastal pools, writes Clewell in Guide to the Vascular Plants of the
Florida Panhandle. They float like bright white candles on the
water.
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'Green
fly
orchid'
a jewel
This
orchid blooms in June on hardwoods in hammocks, sinks and gum swamps,
writes Andre Clewell in Guide to the
Vascular Plants of the Florida Panhandle. It grows in Jefferson
County where we tied the camera to a magnolia tree and pointed it
toward the flower. We've also seen it in Falling Waters State Park. The
light passing though the petals shows the fragility of the plant, which
often hides amid resurrection vine. We've spied it on magnolia trees
above streams, where a micro climate exists. The orchid is the only
arboreal orchid growing north of Central Florida, and it grows in the
Southeastern states. The name is now Epidendrum magnoliae. It was once Epidendrum conopseum before the
taxonomic change. It is said to give off a sweet scent at night.
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White
spiderwort
is unusual
Along the St. Marks Bike Trail in Tallahassee one may see a lot of
flowers, and some of them are unusual. Common spiderwort, of the family
Commelinaceae, is usually blue. This is probably Tradescantia ohiensis which blooms
April through November throughout North Florida. The color of a flower
is less important than the sum of all of its other parts to botanists.
Soil conditions, for instance, might have caused the plant to grow as a
white flower. The plant is edible, and we
took this seriously and once
washed and chopped some in a household blender and made some biscuits
out of it. It was sort of a slimy emolient, in our estimation.
Well, no one much liked the green biscuits because they
were excessively chewey. If one wanted cellulose, however, there would
have been nothing finer to munch on. It is said that spiderworts detect
radioactivity and were used by Native Americans in a medicinal way.
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Guarding
the dunes
at St. George
The beach morning glory or Ipomoea
imperati is an important part of the dune life on barrier
islands. It criss-crosses the dunes and helps to keep them stable,
along with such plants as the sea oats. This flower is widespread in
the United States, growing as far west as Texas and up to North
Carolina on the coast. It has also been found in Pennsylvania.
The plant curls up in the early evening when it has had enough sun. The
leathery, shiny leaves reflect the sun, and thus keep the plant from
burning in the heat of the day. This flower was growing in abundance on
the dunes at St. George Island accompanied by other flowers such as
fogfruit and yellow asters.
We went to the beaches to learn about the importance of barrier islands
in a class at the Apalachicola
National Estuarine Reserve which safeguards 247,000 acres and was
established as a federal/state partnership with the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration and the Florida Department of
Enviromental Protection.
Their program of estuarine education is multi-fold and open to the
public. It was a great learning experience.
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Gonolobus
twists upward
This unusual green flower, penny-size, is a
beautiful climbing milkweed threatened in Florida. Alexander
Krings of North Carolina
State University, a molecular researcher, identifies it as Gonolobus suberosus. Studies have shown it distinct from
Matelea, as it was formerly known as Matelea
gonocarpus as well as Matelea
suberosa. Found
in many counties in
North Florida in rich woods, it twists through the forest and up tree
trunks. Linda Chafin in the Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Florida
also lists the endangered Florida spiny pod or M. floridana with purple-black
flowers, Carolina milkvine or M.
flavidula wth green or yellow net-veined flowers, M. balwiniana with
white flowers, and sandhill spiny pod or M. pubiflora with dull
brown-purple flowers. The last is a trailing vine. A photo
below by Robin Kennedy is of the rare Matelea
flavidula.
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Rare
passion
flowers
These rare variations grew along US 27 near Attapulgus, Ga., in May
2007,
just north of Florida. Passiflora
incarnata usually has only three stigma, or female parts. These flowers have four stigma.
The
arrow points to one of the four stigma and its style, or tube, which
goes to the ovary. The stigma, which receives
pollen, is on the outward end of the style. The leaves of these and the
regular flowers in this patch were were edged in red, the tendrils
were red -- quite atypical -- and
fruit was ripe two months earlier than in N. Florida. Passiflora
Society members say that four
styles sometimes occur in incarnata. One grower
found four styles from seeds
he originally got from Georgia. Variability of flowers is a
secret of success where natural selection favors the
flower with better reproductive adaptation.
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Thistle
prepares
to 'fend
the lave'
Reaching
out for a thistle can be painful if one encounters the spiny bracts
first, but there is a lot of beauty to see.
Of family Asteraceae, they grow everywhere. This
one was aptly named Cirsium
horridulum by Michaux whose book with this
flower came out in 1803. Thistles attract bees, butterflies
and other insects who navigate easily into the flowerhead when it opens
like the universe expanding. Horridulum are either yellow or
purple.
This grew in a limestone glade in Gadsden County,
and it seemed to
be thriving. They grow in flatwoods and ruderal areas April through
August,
according to Andre Clewell in Guide
to the Vascular Plants of the Florida Panhandle. The thistle is the national emblem of
Scotland. The poet Dunbar wrote Thistle and the Rose, about the
wedding
of Margaret, daughter of Henry VII, to James IV of Scotland. 'Dame
Nature' is seen naming the flowers in the fields:
Then called she all
flowers that grew in field,
Discerning all their
fashions and properties;
Upon the awful Thistle
she beheld.
And saw him keeped
by a bush of spears;
Considering him so able
for the wars,
A radiant crown of rubies
she him gave,
And said, 'In field go
forth, and fend the lave.' |
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Thistle from
a bug's eye
Coming in for a landing on a thistle, a katydid may not see what we
see. This abstraction of a thistle was accomplished through undisclosed
means, but it was the thistle above to begin with.
Those who study insect physiology report that many insect species can
distinguish colors. Their compound eyes not only have photopigments
sensitive to different frequencies of light, but give them an
additional advantage in being able to see behind themselves, something
humans cannot do without mirrors.
It is reported that butterflies are able to see colors better than some
other insects. Insects can see especially the ultraviolets, greens, and
blues. Even a caterpillar can distinguish images.
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'Tiger, tiger
burning bright'
From a distance, the saprophytic orchid, Hexalectris
spicata, is simply a purple spike with flowers the size of a
strawberry. Up close, we see the beauty. This flower dapples the woods
on rare
occastions in Florida.
"Hexalectris" means six
cock's combs for the
furls in the
lip. Spicata means "spiked" for its spiked inflorescence,
observes
Carlyle Luer in The
Native Orchids
of Florida.
The red violet lip's fleshy ridges loll forward. In
the center "reigns the arching
white-winged column with an orange anther." The plant grows from
tubers, thick and closely jointed which appear to be food
for rodents, writes Luer.
These delicate flowers were seen near
Chattahoochee.
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On the fringes
of existence
The
delightful and exquisite "fringed campion" or Silene polypetala can be found both
in central Georgia and North Florida in a few sites. This perennial
herb is a federally endangered species. It grows in wooded ravines with
rich soil, alongside magnolias, tulip trees and beeches. Daniel Ward of
UF suggests the correct name of the plant should be Silene catesbaei for Mark Catesby,
the pioneering botanist. North Florida replicates the special more
northerly conditions under which this and some other flowers, like the
mountain laurel, grow. It is found near Chattahoochee, a city along
the Apalachicola River known for being in or near one of the nation's
botanical hotspots for diversity. The flower, about three inches wide,
is of the Caryophyllaceae.
Related rarities are the fire pink Silene
virginica with red notched petals with only one known location
in Florida in Bay County, according to the Florida Natural Areas
Inventory, Silene regia
with notchless red petals, and Silene
caroliniana with
white or pink flowers, in Jackson and Okaloosa counties, respectively. |
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Coral
honeysuckle
makes visit
This flower is called in Latin Lonicera
sempervirens and was spreading its colors along the roadsides in
North Florida in April and May.
We spotted it in Leon County. It is not an invasive species, as is the
Japanese
honeysuckle, which tends to take over large areas, and therefore the
red honeysuckle is popular as a garden plant.
We do not know the trick of getting the nectar out of this flower, but
growing up we used to enjoy pulling the nectar from the Japanese
honeysuckle.
It's hard to for us to consider the white flower invasive, but those
more knowledgeable are quick to point out its tendencies to take over
small areas.
The petals of the red flower open up in many shades of yellow and red,
making a rainbow of color for anyone examining it closely. It grows up
into the Great Smokies where it is known as the trumpet honeysuckle. It
is a climbing vine with paired, oval leaves which are white or whitish
beneath, according to Gupton and Swope in Wildflowers of the Shenandoah Valley and
Blue Ridge Mountains.
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Indian pinks,
Rose pogonia
with visitor
The
Indian pinks on the left, or Spigelia
marilandica, are mid-spring visitors along the forest
footpaths.
The deep red and chartreuse flowers
stand out like bright crayons. They enjoy shaded areas, and we found
these as we walked along a park
trail in Gadsden County.
On the right is Pogonia
ophioglossoides, pogonia
meaning 'bearded.' It is also called the rose pogonia and some
call it 'the snakemouth orchid.' It is said that the orchid may have
the scent of raspberries. This beautiful terrestrial orchid blooms in
mid-spring in the Big Bend of Florida and is found
throughout the state. It is related to the ribbon orchid below.
Dangling and waiting for prey is the inevitable spider. It was found
along Highway 65 in Wakulla County.
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Ribbon
orchid
shows off
This colorful orchid was seen in Wakulla County in early May 2007.
There is scarcely a more
beautiful welcome for a pollinator, but beware of the
spider. Delicately veined in a blend of crimson,
green and chartreuse, with sassy sepals, this orchid is
related closely to the rose pogonia. It
ranges from the Southeast to
Texas. Luer writes of "a bluish green color with a fine
frosty white coating reminiscent of a plum." Cleistes divaricata is the old name
for the larger "spreading pogonia or rosebud orchid." That orchid
is now known as Pogonia divaricata.
The smaller flower is mostly white, while the larger one is pink, says
Gil Nelson in Atlantic Coastal Plain
Wildlowers. We
think this is the smaller Pogonia
bifaria. |
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Munch a
buncha'
colic root
This katydid has found a meal in the colic plant that grows profusely
along Highway 65 in Liberty County. It was captured in our flash on
slide film. How well the insect can climb is evident from the hooks on
the end of its forelimbs. The rotating antennae and the small wings for
guidance make the member of the grasshopper family as truly efficient a
plant predator as can be imagined. There are some 6,800 species of
katydids known, and probably many more undiscovered. Only 255 live in
North America. Some feed only on leaves and such, which others are
predatory on their fellow insects, snails, or even snakes or lizards,
say our sources. It is of the family Tettigoniidae and these
are more closely related to crickets than grasshoppers.
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Lady lupine
brings purple
to the woods
This is the lady lupine, or Lupinus
villosus,
a member of the pea family. This silky-leafed species grows nicely in
scrub
and sandy soil, and provides great food for caterpillars. It is common
in the Southeast, but is always a pleasant surprise to see. The lupine
is the state flower of Texas, and the species known as buffalo clover
sprouts oceans of blue. It is also known as the Texas bluebonnet.
The Florida species pictured here shares the characteristic flowers in
terminal racemes with a two-lipped calyx and erect standard. There are
characteristically 10 stamens with alternately long and short
anthers. There are 150 species of lupines described for North
America, according to the popular Wildflowers of North America: A
Guide to Field Identification by Golden field guides. We used a
Vivitar
19 mm wide angle lens on our Nikon FE to capture this plant
growing along a forest road.
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Tulip tree
flower falls
into stream
This is the colorful flower of the Liriodendron
tulipifera, the American Tulip Tree, which ranges from the
mountains to
central Florida and can grow more than 100 feet high. It is said that a
specimen, 450 years old, is the oldest living thing in New York City.
The flower is a plentiful source of nectar from which bees produce a
dark reddish honey. The tree, which is mistaken for a poplar, is noted
for its soft timber. This magnificent flower fell to earth in the
middle of a
stream in Gadsden County. The blunt leaves are an easy identifier
for this tree.
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Harper's beauty
is one of a kind
Why and how this flower has survived over
millions of years in such small numbers is one of the secrets that
nature keeps. It's the only species in its genus.
Harperocallis flava can
be found along Highway 65 in Liberty County and a few other places. It
is threatened and endangered, with perhaps only a few thousand of these
flowers in existence.
Discovered in 1965, this member of the lily family grows
in wet prairies and roadside ditches. Spring mowing practices along the
road are monitored to protect the plant.
Agencies are working together to try not to destroy the plant's chances
to reproduce. It is a rhizomatous, perennial herb and grows from 5 to
21 centimeters tall, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
It flowers in May with one flower per stalk and is leafless except for
tiny bracts, writes Linda Chafin in the valuable Field Guide to the Rare Plants of Florida printed
by the Florida Natural Areas Inventory.
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Field of pink sparkles on
the savanna
Coreopsis
nudata or swamp coreopsis is the tall beauty in the Wilma
savanna in the Apalachicola National Forest.
Swaying in the breeze,
these flowers paused to allow a picture with an old but reliable Contax
SLR with a 24 mm Sigma lens on it that
has a close focus. The film was Fuji slide film, which normally
intensifies the natural colors.
Stopping the lens down, we were able to get some
good depth of field.
It's pleasant to be out on the quiet savannas. There is a song sung by
the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz.
"I could while away the hours,
Conferrin' with the flowers,
Consultin' with the rain."
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'Pinkroot'
on the
brink
of extinction
Two
treasures are the orchid Platanthera
flava, left, which is seldom seen and was found and photographed
at Wakulla Springs by Virginia Dell Craig, a member of the Magnolia
Chapter of the Native Plant Society. She also found the extremely rare
and U.S. engandered species Spigelia
gentianoides, or pinkroot, at right. The delicate white flower
with pink
highlights is cousin to the red and yellow Indian pinks that color the
forests in May. This flower, less than a foot high, grows in Three
Rivers State Park, two miles north of Sneads. The spigelia is a member
of a family with powerful medicinal properties. This plant produces a
powerful toxin, but is yet to be tested for medicinal properties,
according to the Center for Plant Conservation http://www.centerforplant
conservation.org/ The flava, left, can be found in
the Southern U.S., according to Luer in The Orchids of Florida. |
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Indian cucumber,
wild camelia
Both of these beautiful and rare-for-Florida springtime plants boast
purplish filaments and were blooming in late April near each other in
sloping forests near Chattahoochee.
The cucumber-root at left
or Mediola
virginiana, herbacious, has two whorls of leaves with a
greenis hyellow flower held beneath the leaves at the top whorl. It
grows from one to three feet high. It was taken with flash beneath on
slide film in daylight. The tuber of this plant is "crisp, wax-looking
and cucumber-flavored"
says Peterson's Field Guide to
Edible Wild Plants. The blue berries are not edible. The silky
camelia at right, or Stewartia
malacodendron, is a shrub or small tree, growing sometimes to
about six meters, says Gil Nelson in The
Trees of Florida. It is rare in Florida and grows on the slopes
of ravines. The mass of royal purple filaments and creamy flowers give
the tree a
distinguished look. At first sight, it looks like the
dogwood, but the flowers have purple rather than green centerparts.
This is the first time we have seen either plant, and this made our
day.
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Flavidula
looks fancy
up close
This fancy-looking endangered vine, much enlarged, Matelea flavidula, is found in
limited numbers in North Florida. These flowers are
actually only a little wider than your finger, they grew on their vine
in a stream
bottom/edge.
Andre Clewell in Guide to the
Vascular Plants of the Florida Panhandle writes that the plant
gows on bluffs in Gadsden County and blooms in July. Alexander
Krings at North Carolina State University says this flower has a
well-developed gynostegial corona and its corolla lobes are plane, not
wavy, differentiating it from Matelea
alabamensis.
Robin Kennedy took the
picture with a Nikon digital SLR, accompanied by other members of
the Magnolia Chapter of the Native Plant Society. It was
growing in a mixed pine/hardwood forest that had been logged several
years
ago. The ground cover was predominantly grass, and other neighboring
plants were Indian Pink, buckeye, dogwood, Robin reports.
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Mountain
laurel is a
treat here
One of the treats of springtime
is the mountain laurel in March
through April from Escambia County to Leon County on bluffs and in
creek swamps. Considered rare in Florida, some of the evergreen
plants grow as high as 10 feet. Their branches are full of blossoms.
The mountain laurel has a hidden trick.
The anthers are set in pockets and spring loose to dust visiting
pollinators that go after the nectar, thus propagating the species. It
has a high drought tolerance, which puts it in good stead in the
current drought in 2007 in Florida. We did not need to go far to find
this flower, which was blooming in thousands at the Maclay Gardens
State Park in Tallahassee. It is a native American plant first recorded
in 1624, named after Pehr Kalm who sent a sample to Linnaeus many years
later. It is said that native Americans made spoons out of the wood,
and there were other uses for it. |
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Betony
more than
another
'weed'
Stachys floridana, a member of
the mint family. has a long
list of purported uses as an herbal remedy. It is said the roots
are edible in salads, but don't take our word for it. Betony was a
remedy "for all maladies of the head including hysteria." Worn as a
necklace, the plant wards off evil spirits, ancient writers believed,
according to our sources at botanical.com. A physician of the
Roman emperor Augustus said it cured 47 diseases and dispelled evil --
as well as protected the wearer from "visions and dreams." This,
at purplesage.org.uk. The flower is a weed to many people. It provides
a nice landing place for insects.
Hundreds of plants were growing in moist soil near Lake Hall at Maclay
Gardens. It is found on disturbed or ruderal ground
throughout Leon and other counties. Gil Nelson in East Gulf Coasal Plain Wildflowers
writes that the related Stachys
crenata is critically imperiled in Florida. |
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Serenade
in the key
of gold
No flower as appeals to our senses as does the golden azalea. We
breathe deeply
and they are more fragrant than honeysuckle. We sit beneath the azalea
branches on a hill above the small rippling stream at the Angus Gholson
Nature Park. Perhaps
it is possible to live up to the challenge of John Muir who wrote -
"'Most people are on the world, not in it -- having no conscious sympathy of
relationship to anything about them- undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like
marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.' Nature
furnishes the opportunity for everyone. Florida
flame azaleas are found
from Escambia to Leon County, although we haven't heard of them growing
wild
in Leon County since 'progress' took over. Native
Nurseries in Tallahassee is a great place to look for wild flowers,
including Rhododenron
austrinum.
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Alabamense
endangered,
but keeps
appointment
Rhododendron alabamense or
the Alabama azalea, is identified by the lemon-yellow petal at the
top, differentiating it from the similar pinkster flowers. Many
people in the the region
just
call wild azaleas "wild honeysuckle." This species grows in hammocks in
Leon and Jefferson Counties in April, writes Clewell. It may also
be
found as far north as Tennessee and west into Mississippi. First
described in 1883, the flower is said to have a lemony scent, and
we
did note that it shared the distinctive flavor of several of the
other
members of its family. It takes an insect to tell the difference.
We found these flowers in abundance at Maclay Gardens. We are eager
to find them growing outside of a garden.
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Forget-me-not
recalls a tale
of fated love
It's a small flower steeped in legend and tradition. Medieval legend
tells that a knight and his lady strolled by the water. He picked a
posy of flowers, but because of his heavy armour he fell into the
river. As he was drowning, he tossed the posy
to his beloved, shouting "Forget-me-not!" The flower is also worn in
memory of those killed in wars, and as a sign of
faithfulness. It is said to have a Christian religious
connection also. Myosotis macrosperma is a member of
the Boraginaciae with 100 genera and 2000 species, 19 indigenous
to the United States, writes Lawrence in Taxonymy of Vascular Plants.
Myosotis is cultivated for ornament.
This plant was thriving in Gadsden County in
March in forest shade and is common in the eastern U.S. It
is relished by caterpillars.
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Adventurer
found this
forest fern
Usually smilax is a pest with sharp thorns and tendrils, but Smilax ecirrhata (at left) greenbrier
or upright carrion flower is an exception. This plant is a widespread member
of the lily family, but was not in bloom. The fern is Phegopteris hexagonoptera or
'broad
beech fern.' Fronds are up to two feet long. These
ferns are widespread, growing as far north as Canada. One ignores
the forest floor at peril of losing sight of its richness. Each plant
contributes to the forest. The famed French
botanist and brave adventurer Andre Michaux
found the fern on his journey to America to find trees
to replenish France's forests. He explored Spanish Florida in a
dugout
canoe. A friend of William Bartram, he could find plants
that Bartram overlooked, to Bartram's amazement. |
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Crossvines
seem to
chat away
They seemed to be talking away on a road near the Arvah Hopkins Power
Plant in Tallahassee. Strewn through the hair of a tree, these flowers
on a vine were decked out for church and full of the latest news. Turns
out the crossvine or Bignonia
capreolata likes the floodplains and hammocks and will bloom
from March through April. Its corolla is yellow-orange to red,
described by Andre Clewell in Guide
to the Vascular Plants of the
Florida Panhandle. This native vine is widespread. It's terminal
leaflet is modified into a tendril.
The stem is separated
into four equal longitudinal segments which can be seen as a cross
section, according to Richard D. Porcher in Wildflowers of the Carolina Lowcountry
which is an excellent supplementary book for Florida.
While they weren't growing in a floodplain, they were along a ditch and
a stream that appeared to be taking water from the power plant. It was
a good place for them, and they were prospering. The related trumpet
vine or Campsis radicans will
appear in
floodplains and disturbed areas later, and the Catalpa bignonioides will also
flower.
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Rare violet
shows off
in Gadsden
This rare Viola hastata was prospering in
solitary splendor near a remote creek in Gadsden
County, amid trilliums and other spring flowers. In Florida, the flower is known only in
Gadsden County, according to Daniel Ward in Rare and Endangered Biota of Florida.
This flower is considered endangered. It is the only violet
in Florida with a yellow flower, according to Ward. It is known also as
the halberd-leaved yellow
violet. It was found along the Flat Creek area
near Chattahoochee, amid
lance leaved trillium and other uncommon species. It was photographed with a Nikon FE using Fuji Velvia 100. We
digitized on a
Coolscan V at 130 million
pixels before being reduced to 72 dpi. The flower, which
usually blooms in April, is
apparently blooming several weeks early, not unlike many plants adapting to what
scientists say are
global warming changes. |
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Florida
violets
remind of
life's renewal
Pushing up through the leafy debris
the purple violets sing a song of rebirth and renewal, a gaudy
camouflage over the decay of the year gone by, whether in meadow
or graveyard or our front lawns. They are buttons on the earth's
overcoat, We see an abundance of violets this spring, all marked
with a fancy landing path for insects that will carry the pollen from
one violet to another. No larger than a nickel, this violet dwarfs the
small plant to the left
which grows under the protection of the leaf. This particular
violet was growing somewhere in Jefferson County at the Letchworth
Indian Mounds park, and we suspect the violets were growing when the
native Americans lived there from 200 to 800 A.D.
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Orchid makes
its own meals
without the sun
Spring coral root, or Corallorhiza
wisteriana, is a native perennial orchid that can be found in
almost
every state of the union, but it is little seen because it is often
hidden away in the shade. A saprophyte, not a parasite,
it depends on mychorrizal fungi in its roots to help it produce
nutrients. Vast network of fungi underlie the
soils upon which the plant grows. Its flower is smaller than a dime,
and glistens in the sun. Purple dots adorn its lip. The flower was
discovered by the American botanist Charles J. Wister and was named in
1833 by Rafinesque. It blooms in rich mixed hardwood
forests and usually near trunks of trees, in bunches. Whether
the underground rhizomes bloom every year may be a function of how much
water was available over winter. This coral root grew
along Thomasville Road in Leon County, Florida, off a a side road in a
wooded lot.
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'Cherokee
rose' grew where
tears fell
This rose with pure white
petals grows
along The Trail of Tears from Florida to Oklahoma, says Indian Legend,
and sprang forth from the tears of mothers who could not help their
children.
It was a sign the elders prayed for, and gave the mothers hope.
The
center, a cluster of yellow stamens, represents the gold taken from
Cherokee lands, says the Cherokee Messenger on the Internet. It
drapes the trees along roadsides in springtime Leon County. We climbed
through a briar patch right off Monroe
Street, a couple of miles north of the Capitol. Scratched up,
but delighted to get the picture. Georgia has deigned it the state
flower there. Rosa laevigata originated
in
China and Taiwan, and was brought to the U.S. about 1780, where it
thrived in the Southeastern U.S. , although it is reported that early
explorers saw | |
