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.

_____________________________________

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.

_____________________________________

Florida rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides, Ericaceae)
Native

_____________________________________

Lichen

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

_____________________________________

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.

_____________________________________

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.

_____________________________________

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.

_____________________________________

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.

_____________________________________

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.

_____________________________________

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.

_____________________________________

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.

____________________________________

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.

____________________________________

Tarflower (Bejaria racemosa, Ericaceae)

Native

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

____________________________________

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.

____________________________________

Narrowleaf silkgrass (Pityopsis graminifolia, Asteraceae)

Native

Widespread in dry, sandy areas.

____________________________________

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.

____________________________________

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.

____________________________________

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.

____________________________________

Chapman's goldenrod (Solidago odora, Asteraceae)

Native

____________________________________