"Weeds" of South Patrick Drive, May 31, 2010

This is a collection of photos of wildflowers, many of them commonly considered to be weeds, taken along the bike path on the west side of South Patrick Drive (Satellite Beach), between Cassia Boulevard and Jackson Avenue. Soil is dry next to the bike path and moist to wet in the shallow ditch between the bike path and the highway. The flowers of many of these plants are tiny, but sometimes beautiful.

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Golden canna (Canna flaccida,  Cannaceae)
Native; wet areas; southern states

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Capeweed (Phyla nodiflora, Verbenaceae)

Native

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Whitemouth dayflower (Commelina erecta, Commelinaceae)
Native

According to Wikipedia, Linnaeus picked the genus name Commelina in honor of two renowned Dutch botanists of the Commelijn family (Jan and his nephew Caspar), using the two showy petals of Commelina communis to symbolize them. Somewhere else I read that the joke was the third small, mostly obscured petal symbolized a third, less well-known botanist of the Commelijn family.

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Virginia pepperweed (Lepidium virginicum, Brassicaceae)
Native

In my north Florida hometown, boys occasionally would chew the seed pods of this plant for the novelty of the biting taste, similar to mild horseradish. Pepperweed is a member of the mustard family, which also contains radishes.

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Spotted sandmat (Chamaesyce maculata, Euphorbiaceae)
Native
One interesting thing about this common roadside weed is that within each cluster of tiny, white flowers, there is nearly always one that is pink. (I read somewhere that what looks like petals are actually specialized glands.)

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Common wireweed (Sida ulmifolia, Malvaceae)
Native; member of the hibiscus family.

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Florida tasselflower (Emilia fosbergii, Asteraceae)
Non-native

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Fire-on-the-Mountain, painted leaf (Poinsettia cyathophora, Euphorbiaceae)
Native

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Tall jointweed (Polygonella gracilis, Polygonaceae)

Native

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Nuttall's thistle (Cirsium nuttallii, Asteraceae)
Native

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Creeping oxeye (Sphagneticola trilobata, Asteraceae)
Non-native

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Pink purslane (Portulaca pilosa, Portulacaceae)
Native

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Largeflower rosegentian (Sabatia grandiflora, Gentianaceae)

Native

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Hairypod cowpea (Vigna luteola, Fabaceae)
Native

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Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus, Apocyaceae)
Non-native

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Southern beeblossom (Gaura angustifolia, Onagraceae)
Native

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Walter's groundcherry (Physalis walteri, Solanaceae)
Native

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Showy milkwort (Polygala violacea, Polygalaceae)
Native

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Common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia, Asterceae)
Native

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Shrubby false buttonweed (Spermacoce verticillata, Rubiaceae)

Not native

On March 25, 2011, "Anonymous," in a comment to this post, correctly identified this plant as Spermacoce verticillata, a non-native weed. I had previously labeled it as Alternanthera flavescens. Thanks, Anonymous, for the correction!

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Wild bushbean, phasey bean (Macroptilium lathyroides, Fabaceae)

Non-native

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Largeflower Mexican clover (Richardia grandiflora, Rubiaceae)

Non-native

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Rosy camphorweed (Pluchea baccharis, Asteraceae)
Native

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Pitted stripeseed, piriqueta (Piriqueta cistoides, Turneraceae)
Native

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Puncturevine (Tribulus terrestris, Zygophyllaceae)

Non-native

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