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 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.
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”.
Nature is everywhere … Enhance your understanding of the plants, insects, animals & complex interactions by reading about the ORCA & other natural areas.
Sometimes it can be hard to differentiate our native sword ferns – Nephrolepis exaltata & Nephrolepis biserrata from their invasive, non-native relatives – Nephrolepis cordifolia & Nephrolepis brownnii. All of these ferns, too often, are called Boston fern or, to…
Tall cabbage palms (Sabal palmetto) form a canopy along the St. Sebastian River at the South Prong Slough where we visited on 5/15/2022. Long ago these palms shed their boots (bases of old leafstems), as all cabbage palms do as…
Water hickory, swamp hickory, and bitter pecan are all common names for Carya aquatica, a large, deciduous tree of floodplain forests. It ranges from southern central Florida to the eastern Carolinas and westward to eastern Texas. We saw this tree…
Downy maiden fern (Thelypteris dentata) was volunteering along the foundation of the Ryall house at the South Prong Slough when we visited on 5/15/2022. Also known as downy shield fern, this attractive tropical/subtropical fern is naturalized throughout Florida, including along…
In 2006 Indian River County purchased 10 acres on the south prong of the St. Sebastian River for conservation and public enjoyment. Known as the Ryall property for its former owner, this property includes a house that will be home…
Giant leather fern (Acrostichum danaeifolium) is the largest fern in North America. Its fronds can grow to be 15′ tall. When we visited Osprey Aces Stormwater Park and Nature Preserve, we saw giant leather fern growing in the rocks on…
Australian umbrella tree (Heptapleurum actinophyllum), shown above at Osprey Acres Stormwater Park and Nature Preserve, is terribly invasive in south Florida. For years, most every “cookie-cutter” landscape included an Australian umbrella tree, most usually planted under the eveas of the…
On our visit to Osprey Acres Stormwater Park and Nature Preserve on 4/10/2022, the coralberry (Ardisia crenata) was full of fruit … Its coral-red fruits are eaten and spread by birds. Birds easily could transport ready-to-go seeds to the nearby…
Hollies, we expect, to have red berries at Christmas-time. Gallberry (Ilex glabra) is a holly that has black fruits. The fruits often persist throughout the winter and into spring. Ultimately, they are eaten by migratory birds. When we visited Osprey…
Resurrection fern (Pleopeltis michauxiana) is a desiccation tolerant plant. During dry times, each resurrection fern frond “curls up” on itself exposing the underside of the frond which is covered with roundish (peltate) scales. These scales help to slow dehydration and…
As a few of us lingered at the end of our walk at Coastal Oaks Preserve, a somewhat tattered great southern white butterfly (Ascia monuste) was sipping nectar from two nearby native plants, oakleaf fleabane (Erigeron quercifoliius) … … and…
Virginia pepperweed (Lepidium virginicum) was lush and lovely at the Coastal Oaks Preserve when we visited on 2/26/2022. Native from southern Canada through most of the U.S. to central America, this wildflower can be weedy elsewhere and in its native…
Enjoy the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area 