Since 1998 the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory has provided science-based educational activities for the ORCA to enhance community understanding & enjoyment.
The Oslo Environmental Education Fund, a University of Florida endowment, underwrites an annual Volunteer Nature Stewardship class offered through the Florida Medical Entomology.
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The aster family, Asteraceae, is sometimes called the daisy or sunflower family. Many plants in this family, like the weedy but native common beggarticks (Bidens alba) shown below, have the standard daisy setup, a central disc (which is filled with tiny flowers) surrounded by petals […]
Pictured above on 7-15-2018 are 14 of the 16 people (and 1 of 2 dogs) who turned out to traverse the Central Railroad Corridor Greenway Bridge (CRCGB), a recently opened pedestrian overpass that crosses I-95. Diane Morgan and John Warner did not make the crossing […]
The devil, often, is in the detail … When a new plant volunteered in our yard after Hurricane Irma, I did not look too hard at it and thought, happily, that privet senna (Senna ligustrina) had volunteered. The Florida Plant Atlas calls it privet wild […]
Originally posted on Range Tracking:
A panorama of a fork in the trails taken early Sunday morning during a photographic insect survey of the South Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area (ORCA). The heat and humidity on the trail ended the photo survey well before noon.
Construction began in April of 2017 on the Central Railroad Corridor Greenway Pedestrian Overpass that traverses I-95. It now is officially open and connects a 2-mile pedestrian path from the North County Regional Park to the Fellsmere Trailhead Preserve following the path of the historic […]
Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) is full of fabulous white round balls of flowers in spring and summer. The genus name, Cephalanthus, means flowering (anthus) head (cephal), and the species name, occidentalis, means of or from the West. This beautiful plant of moist places (think river edges and other […]
Pictured above is mock bishopsweed (Ptilimnium capillaceum) growing at Cypress Bend Community Preserve when we visited on 5/5/2018. Herbwilliam is another common name for this plant which was identified by Ellie Klebonis (Class of 2015). The genus name, Ptilimnium, likely comes from the Greek words […]
At a glance burrnut or Jamaican feverplant (Tribulus cistoides) sure is pretty, but close encounters — by barefeet or by bicycle tires — with the fruits of this plant often do not end well. Puncturevine, goat’s head, caltrop are other common names for this plant, […]
Just a few steps from the eastern entrance to the south Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area (ORCA), you will find tarflower (Bejaria racemosa), shown above, full of pinkish white flowers. Its flowers are held in racemes, clusters of flowers that open from the bottom to the top. […]
Purple bushbean (Macroptilium atropurpeum) sure is pretty with its dark, dark purple flowers. Thank you to George Bollis for the beautiful pictures of this plant taken near Lake Keanan and to Mary Ester Bollis for sending me his photos correctly identified. At a glance, you […]
Showy rattlebox (Crotalaria spectablis) is big and beautiful, often growing to be more than six feet tall. Native to southeast Asia, this woody annual is weedy and poisonous. Rattleweed is another common name. Showy ratttlebox loves disturbance, and the seedlings shown below on the Oslo […]
On our visit to Cypress Bend Community Preserve on 5-5-2018, we saw smooth rattlebox (Crotalaria pallida var. obovata), pictured above, growing in the ruderal area of the parking lot. Fifteen species of crotalaria are found in Florida, and this widely distributed species is non-native — […]
