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 2023, when covid concerns hopefully will have diminished. 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 are asked to “volunteer back” and share what they have learned at the ORCA, another nature preserve, a nature center, or in 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 if you are interested in joining a nature walk at ORCA.
Sweet Sam, Bob Montanaro’s dog,, stands at the trailhead to the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area, wondering about the wet conditions. This picture was taken in early September of 2016, a year with “usual” summer rainfall. Every year is different, and…
Yellowtop (Flaveria linearis) flowers each fall behind the beach dunes at Sebastian Inlet State Park. It is shown below in 2013 growing between the roadway and a swath of sea oxeye daisy (Borrichia frutescens). Yellowtop generally flowers in the late…
It’s that time of year, again! Love bugs flourish twice per year: April – May and August – September. Also know as honeymoon bugs, double-headed bugs, and March flies, these short-lived insects are harmless to people but hell on automotive…
Populations of blue land crabs (Cardisoma guanhami) have declined dramatically over the years due to over-harvesting and habitat loss. They are most active at dawn and dusk near the full moon. September and October tend to be their most active…
Fiddler’s spurge (Euphorbia heterophylla) is an annual weed (or wildlflower) that is native to the southeastern United States as well as tropical and subtropical America. Mexican fireplant, wild poinsettia, Japanese poinsettia, hypocrite poinsettia, and desert poinsettia are other common names.…
When we visited the South Prong Slough on 6-16-2022, we saw the very beginnings of shoestring fern (Vittaria lineata), an epiphytic fern with an almost absolute allegiance to the trunk of cabbage palms (Sabal palmetto) in moist, mostly shady places.…
Usually, common beggarticks (Bidens alba) is abundant — along roadsides, mosquito control dikes, and in other disturbed places. Not so much this year, though. Perhaps, the lack of rainfall this year explains its relative absence. Common beggarticks are an annual…
Read More Weeds of Wednesday: Where Have All the Bidens Gone?
Resurrection fern (Pleopeltis michauxiana), like all ferns, reproduces via wind-borne spores – not seeds. The “warty” spots that you see on the resurrection fern pictured above are made by the spore cases (sporangia) on the underside of the fronds. The…
Drought is a difficult term to define, but we all know it when we see it. Pictured above is the mosquito control impoundment once overlooked by the tall Observation Tower at the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area in February of 2009.…
When we visited the Coastal Oaks Preserve on 2/26/22, we saw lots of tasselflower (Emilia fosbergii). Also called Cupid’s shaving brush, tasselflower has tiny bell-shaped reddish or pinkish flowers that are visited by bees and butterflies. Wind is thought to…
This Florida butterfly orchid (Encyclia tampensis) was flowering and forming seed pods in the Florida Medical Entomology Laboratory parking lot. We tend to look for Nature in parks and conservation areas and not where we park. Marylou Rethman (Class of…
It’s a girl crab (spider)! University of Florida’s Featured Creatures describes the spineybacker orbweaver (Gasteracantha cancriformis) as “one of the most colorful spiders in Florida” and as “one of the most conspicuous.” The information in this post comes from that…
Enjoy the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area 