440 acres adjacent to the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory, University of Florida/IFAS
Get trail maps and information about the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area — and other Indian River County conservation lands — with Indian River County’s new Map App. Click here to check it out.
Nature does nothing uselessly — Aristotle
Nature is everywhere. Enjoy exploring the puzzles & complexities of nature at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area & on this website. You will find some of the plants, insects, and animals that you see here in your yard, along the roadsides, and elsewhere.
Enjoy nature everywhere.
The Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory (FMEL) will offer its twenty-fourth Volunteer Nature Stewardship Class for the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area (ORCA) in January 2021. How this course will be offered – live, virtual, or some combo thereof – remains uncertain due to coronavirus.
It will provide a foundation for understanding — and enjoying — the common habitats of Indian River County and what you may find in your yard. Field activities definitely will be included.
Class participants will be asked to “volunteer back” and share what they have learned at the ORCA, another nature preserve, a nature center, or another venue. You craft how and where you “volunteer back”.
You can check out the 2020 schedule: 2020 FMEL Volunteer Class Schedule
Email Janice Broda at jbroda@ufl.edu to be notified by email when registration will open for the 2021 class.
‘Tis the biannual Season for lovebugs (Plecia neacrtica). Lovebugs mate and swarm, annoyingly, in the spring (April/May) and in the fall (August/September). They do not bite, but their sheer volume can be daunting and damaging to vehicle paint. University of…
Even from a substantial distance the bright shiny red stood out. Upon closer inspection, I was stunned to see a fruit on the invasive arrowhead vine (Syngonium podophyllum) in a yard at Treasure Hammock Ranch. Fruiting is rare in Florida…
Lancewood is now full of flowers at the north entrance to the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area (ORCA). Its creamy white flowers are held in terminal clusters (panicles) and attract to bees and other pollinators. Its opposite leaves are leathery as…
Coral ardisia is a striking but invasive plant. The Osprey Acres Stormwater Park and Nature Preserve, unfortunately, is home to a thriving population in its shady hammock areas, as seen below. Native to southeast Asia and introduced to Florida as…
Along Oslo Road – along with lyreleaf sage (Salvia lyrata) and narrowleaf blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium) – oakleaf fleabane (Erigeron quercifolius) is now full of flowers. The dime-sized flowers are held atop tall stalks (to +12′) and, like nearly all…
Lyreleaf sage (Salvia lyrata) grows along roadsides including Oslo Road at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area along with narrowleaf blue-eyed grass. This perennial native wildflower grows from a basal rosette, seeds profusely, and will “fill in” an area if mowed…
You will find narrowleaf blue-eyed grass (Sisirynchium angustifolium) growing along moist roadsides including along Oslo Road near the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area (ORCA). It’s not a grass, though. Common names often are confusing. The foliage of this clumping perennial native…
Loment is botanical term for a string of seeds that separate on some species of plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. Most folks are not fond of loments, but they are a very effective dispersal mechanism. At the Oslo Riverfront…
European honeybees (Apis mellifera), native bees, and other pollinators love common begarticks (Bidens alba). This native but weedy annual wildflower grows throughout the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area (ORCA) in sunny disturbed spots. A member of the daisy family, Asteraceae, common…
The myrsine trees near the coastal wetlands at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area (ORCA) were full of flowers and fruits when a small group of volunteers from the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory Volunteer Nature Stewardship program took a walk there…
At a quick glance it looks like a white paint ball blotch, but it is not. With its white brightness, wreath lichen (Cryptothecia striata) stands out on the trunks of lancewood (Nectandra coriacea) on the east-west trail that leads away…
Marylou Rethman (Class of 2009) brought a cutting of what she hoped was native marlberry (Ardisia escallonioides) but suspected that it might not be. Sure enough, it was shoebutton ardisia (Ardisia elliptica), a plant so invasive that it is on…
