Wickham Park, March Inventory, March 21, 2011

I took a quick hike around my favorite wildflower spots to see what was blooming. Found one wildflower new to me: Fourleaf vetch. Also, found two wildflowers that I had not seen in Wickham Park before: Apalachicola toadflax and Virginia plantain. The plantain is a very common "weed," which I must have overlooked on previous visits.

Following are photos of some of the wildflowers I found on this day. After the photos are listed other blooming plants seen, some non-blooming plants, and a few common plants that I did not find (too early).

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Oakleaf fleabane (Erigeron quercifolius, Asteraceae)
Native

Plenty of it blooming throughout the park, especially along roadsides and ditch shoulders.

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Bay lobelia (Lobelia feayana, Campanulaceae)
Native, Florida endemic

One small patch found along the ditch to the Youth Camping Area. Several other ditches in the park have patches of bay lobelia.

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Netted pawpaw (Asimina reticulata, Annonaceae)
Native

Lots of pawpaw in bloom.

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Virginia plantain, southern plantain (Plantago virginica, Plantaginaceae)
Native

Large patches along the ditch to the Youth Camping Area.

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Fourleaf vetch (Vicia acutifolia, Fabaceae)

Native

This wildflower was new to me. Found along the ditch to the Youth Camping Area. It's probably been there all the time, I just overlooked it.

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Pinebarren frostweed, rock-rose (Helianthemum corymbosum, Cistaceae)
Native

The side view on the right shows the corymb structure of the inflorescence. It also shows the bug that had eaten half of one of the blossoms.

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Pineland scalypink (Stipulicida setacea, Caryophyllaceae)
Native

I found only a few of these tiny plants in bloom.

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Bog white violet (Viola lanceolata, Violaceae)
Native

A surprise! In spite of the dry conditions, lots of white violets were growing where they always do.

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Coastalplain willow (Salix caroliniana, Salicaceae)
Native

Found a willow tree with female catkins that had turned to fuzzy seed heads.

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Apalachicola toadflax (Linaria floridana, Plantaginacee)

Native

The other toadflax is Canada toadflax, L. canadensis, which is commonly seen along roadsides. It has short flower stalks, blossoms with long spurs, and smooth stems. The toadflax shown here, L. floridana, has glandular/pubescent stems, long flower stalks, and short spurs.

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Yellow colicroot (Aletris lutea, Nartheciaceae)
Native

This wildflower is easily identified by its basal leaves, shown here. The leaves are pointed, slightly rolled up, and yellowish. I believe the flower stalk will appear in May and will turn to seed by early June. There are only two or three plants in this area (the boggy area north of the Youth Camping Area), and these are the only ones I've ever seen anywhere.

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 Other wildflowers in bloom, but not shown in this post: fourpetal St. John's-wort (lots of it), blackroot (a few), pennyroyal (appeared to be mostly bloomed out for now), rose-rush (found only one in bloom), yellow stargrass (lots of it in grassy, mowed areas), beeblossom (found only one plant), black medick (lots), yellow oxalis (a few), Mexican clover (lots), hawkweed (only two), camphorweed (found 1 short one in bloom, lots of them just coming up), and fetterbush (several plants in full bloom).

Wildflowers not in bloom: Adam's needles, shiny blueberry, creeping oxeye, Caesar weed, rusty staggerbush, elephant toes, tarflower, prickly pear, winged sumac, and beargrass.

Some plants not found, but are usually present later in the year: palafox, blue mistflower, rosy camphorweed, yellow milkwort, coastalplain St.John's-wort, savannah milkweed, Florida milkweed, roseling, meadowbeauty, and sundew.