Wickham Park, Research, July 29, 2010

Goals for this visit were to investigate rose-rush seed heads and try to get better close-ups of various small flowers. On the previous outing, it was very windy and there was a cloud cover part of the time. The result was a slow shutter speed and a lot of blurry photos. On this day the sky was bright and sunny (3:00 p.m.) and it was fairly calm.
    I had also intended to take more photos of lesser Florida spurge and Florida milkweed (both endemics), which I had found on the previous visit. However, I could not find them this time. I may have to start tying ribbons around trees to mark the location of uncommon plants!

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This is an area where rose-rush can always be found. No full-open blooms today, though. This small open space, dominated by wiregrass, is immediately to the west of the road into the youth camping area.

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Rose-rush (Lygodesmia aphylla, Asteraceae)

 Native

Left: Flower bud about to open. Right: Opening flower. Center: Seed head with only a few seeds left. Each "parachute" is attached to a single seed, rather than to a capsule holding many seeds, as I had previously thought. Most of the seeds have already flown away in this specimen. I found some seed heads that had not formed seeds--only bristles. Apparently this is normal.

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Loblolly bay (Gordonia lasianthus, Theaceae)

Native

Only one blossom was open. Looks like the blooming season of these trees is about over. The word "loblolly," by the way, originally denoted thick porridge. In the southern U.S., the word is used to mean "a mudhole; a mire." The name has become associated with several varieties of trees, all of which favor wet bottomlands or swamps.

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Rough hedgehyssop (Gratiola hispida, Veronicaceae)

Native

I finally got a decent close-up photo of this common, tiny flower; it's found in grassy areas. The flower is asymmetric; one petal is larger than the others.

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Rustweed (Polypremum procumbens, Tetrachondraceae)

Native

An even smaller flower; rustweed is widespread in the park.

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Carolina redroot (Lachnanthes caroliana, Haemodoraceae)
Native

A few of these wildflowers were growing in the ditch on the west side of the road into the youth camping area. They are found in wet areas, although with the recent drought, there aren't many wet places lately. I've recently read that redroot blossoms are a favorite food of sandhill cranes.

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Blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum, Asteraceae)

Native

Due to the drought, the large clump of blue mistflower that grows in the ditch was looking pretty distressed on this day. W.K. Taylor mentions in his book, The Guide to Florida Wildflowers, the difficulty of faithfully capturing  the color of many blue wildflowers in photographs, including this one. He says it is known as the "ageratum" effect (ageratum is one of the common names of mistflower). The color usually shows in photos as having a pinkish cast.

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Tarflower (Barjeria racemosa, Ericaceae)
Native

The tarflower blooming season is over; the plants now bear sticky seed heads. This photo shows a bristly stem.

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Carolina yelloweyed grass (Xyris caroliniana, Xyridaceae)

Native

On my next visit, I need to look closer; the stems of X. caroliniana are twisted.

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Elliott's milkpea (Galactia elliottii, Fabaceae)

Native

Widespread in dry, sandy areas of the park.

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Tall elephantsfoot (Elephantopus elatus, Asteraceae)
Native

Due to the drought, the flower heads of this plant were droopy today. Note the characteristic triangular shape of the flower heads.

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Camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris, Asteraceae)
Native

I'm still trying to confirm that I have correctly identified this widespread plant. It seems more hairy than the books say and online photos show. The plant in the center photo has been littered with the bristles from passing flights of rose-rush parachute seeds.

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Hairy jointweed (Polygonella ciliata, Polygonaceae)
Native, Florida endemic

Common in sandy areas of the pine flatwoods on the northeast corner of the park.

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Pineland pinweed (Lechea sessiliflora, Cistaceae)
Native

This species can be reliably found in sandy areas on the northeast corner of the park. I assume the name comes from the round-headed pin shape of the flower heads and stems.

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Savannah milkweed (Asclepias pedicellata, Apocynaceae)
Native

This is a difficult plant to find. I've  found only two specimens this year.

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Views of the sand live oak/sand pine/rosemary community located in the northeast corner of the park. Left: sand pines and sand live oaks. Right: rosemary. Center: sand pine and reindeer "moss" (lichen).

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Wickham Park, Small Stuff, July 26, 2010

Today I went searching for Indian pipe, a parasitic plant which I had seen many years ago growing beneath some sand live oak trees. I didn't find Indian pipe, but the search took me into the northeast corner of the park, where I had not visited in recent years. I followed a wide, sandy trail that led east from the southeast corner of the scout camping area. With this visit I added three new wildflowers to my Wickham Park set, with one of them new to me.

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In the left view, a wide, "sugar sand" trail (a fire break) runs east, splitting the scrub into two distinct habitats: longleaf pine/saw palmetto/wiregrass on the left and sand live oak/sand pine/rosemary on the right. The left side is open sun; the right side is shady. Occasional fires in the longleaf pine area is perhaps the reason for the differing habitats. A view of the longleaf pine habitat is shown on the right above. The center view shows wiregrass in the foreground, backed by saw palmettos and longleaf pine.
    The sand live oak habitat is pretty much barren of wildflowers. That area is shady, and the ground is heavily littered with oak leaves, both of which may inhibit the growth of most small plants. Patches of ground lichens can be found there. The longleaf pine habitat was rich with wildflowers, mostly small and inconspicuous.

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Florida rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides, Ericaceae)
Native

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Lichen

Reindeer "moss" and British soldier lichen. These lichens are common in sandy scrub, especially under or near sand live oaks and sand pines.

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Scrubland goldenaster (Chrysopsis subulata, Asteraceae)
Native, Florida endemic

This plant was previously misidentified as camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris). Roger Hammer correctly identified it as scrubland goldenaster (Chrysopsis subulata), June 3, 2015.

Some of these wildflowers were drooping from lack of rain.

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Rose-rush (Lygodesmia aphylla, Asteraceae)
Native

Left: Photo taken in April. Right: Photo taken today. You can see the origin of the seed structures. Rose-rush does not have disk florets, only ray florets.

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Gopher apple (Licania michauxii, Chrysobalanaceae)
Native

Gopher apple fruit is white when ripe. Apparently something (a gopher tortoise?) took a couple of bites on an unripe one and gave up.

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Pineland pinweed (Lechea sessiliflora, Cistaceae)

Native

This is the first time I've noticed this plant in Wickham Park. Earlier in July I found it in Cruickshank Sanctuary. The flowers all appear to be going to seed.

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Hairy jointweed (Polygonella ciliata, Polygonaceae)
Native, Florida endemic

This species is new to me. More study is required to confirm  this identification. There are no photos of this species at the USF/ISB website.

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Florida milkweed (Asclepias feayi, Apocynaceae)
Native, Florida endemic

It's always a surprise to find this small wildflower. I've found only three or four of them.

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Lesser Florida spurge (Euphorbia polyphylla, Euphorbiaceae)
Native, Florida endemic

They are inconspicuous, but I found quite a few of this species scattered throughout the longleaf pine area. Several weeks after the April and May 2006 wildfires, hundreds of these plants sprang up in the trail on the east side of the scout camping area.

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Coastalplalin honeycombhead, yellow buttons (Balduina angustifolia, Asteraceae)

Native

Left: Entire plant. Right: Flower head, after dropping the ray florets. Center: Empty seed capsule. An "eye" appears in each cavity.

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Tarflower (Bejaria racemosa, Ericaceae)

Native

Left: Sticky seed capsules after flowers have dropped. Right: Empty seed capsules from last year.

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Tall elephantsfoot (Elephantopus elatus, Asteraceae)

Native

This specimen was limp from lack of rain. It was the only one I found in bloom. Others have not opened yet. Experts say it blooms in summer and fall. Widespread.

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Narrowleaf silkgrass (Pityopsis graminifolia, Asteraceae)

Native

Widespread in dry, sandy areas.

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Florida beargrass (Nolina atopocarpa, Ruscaceae)

Native, Florida endemic, rare and endangered

I found four clumps of beargrass in the longleaf pine habitat. Seeds are now developing along the flowering stalks. The grass-like base leaves are about 2-ft long, some as long as 3-ft. The leaves have longitudual ridges and have slightly sawtooth edges.

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American bluehearts (Buchnera americana, Orobanchaceae)

Native

At first I thought this was a new wildflower. Overall it resembled bluehearts--single, tall stem with a small cluster of blue flowers at the top. The petals, however, were more strap-like than in the photos of bluehearts online and in books. And they had dark blue markings. But bluehearts is the closest I can find, so I have assumed that this is just one of the range of appearances of bluehearts.

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Florida false sunflower (Phoebanthus grandiflorus, Asteraceae)

Native

Two different specimens are shown here. As was the case during my previous visit, the flowers stalks had fallen over and were parallel to the ground.

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Chapman's goldenrod (Solidago odora, Asteraceae)

Native

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