Wickham Park: Inventory, April 27, 2011

My primary goal on this visit was to check if the yellow colicroots were blooming yet. They were. I also wanted to do a quick inventory of what was blooming. Along the way, I discovered a small Florida milkweed tucked under the basal leaves of an Adam's needle plant.

The park management has recently replowed the firebreaks, thereby wiping out a few areas of unique wildflowers and making walking very difficult.

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Re-plowed firebreaks

Left: trail on east side of youth camping area. Right: trail on north side of youth camping area.

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 Inventory

Above is a composite image of 36 wildflowers found in the park on this day. Most of them were in bloom. Since all of these wildflowers have been previously reported, you can see larger images elsewhere in this blog.

Row 1: meadowbeauty, coastalplain St.John's-wort, bay lobelia, mock bishopsweed, tasselflower, fourpetal St.John's-wort

Row 2: blackroot, capeweed, rough hedgehyssop, yellow stargrass, roserush, loblolly bay

Row 3: sensitive brier, beeblossom, primrosewillow, Spanish needles, bluehearts, dog fennel

Row 4: Mexican clover, coreopsis, cattails, caesarweed, tarflower, elephantsfoot

Row 5: partridge pea, Adam's needle, Florida milkweed, pricklypear cactus, beggarweed, whitetop aster

Row 6: milkpea, smilax, colicroot, rattlesnake master, palmetto, beargrass

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Florida milkweed (Asclepias feayi, Apocynaceae)

Florida endemic
It's always a surprise to find this small plant. I never know where it will pop up. This one, only about 6 in. high, was on the west side of the trail that runs along the east side of the youth camping area.

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Yellow colicroot (Aletris lutea, Nartheciaceae)

Native

I've found these plants in only one area of the park (the "boggy area," although it hasn't been very boggy lately). The basal leaves are very distinctive: young leaves are green, older ones turn yellow and orange, and leaves are rolled inward. There are over a dozen plants in this area, with at least half of them now in full bloom.

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