The star of our field trip to the Indian River Lagoon Greenway on 8/11/2018 undoubtedly was the lovely lindenleaf rosemallow (Hibiscus furcellatus) pictured above. Also known as sleepy hibiscus, this member of the mallow family, Malvaceae, is native to the southeast coast of Florida from […]
Author: exploreorca
Florida Citrus?
The citrus family, Rutaceae, includes more than 1,500 mostly aromatic plants in 150 genera. The fruits of commerce — grapefruit, oranges, tangerines, and like — are in the genus Citrus, are primarily of Asian origin, and are greatly plagued by citrus greening, an exotic bacterial […]
Humdinger of a Moth
Donna Winter (Class of 2016) emailed this wonderful photo of a clearwing hummingbird moth (Hemaris thysbe) in her garden in Canada — in honor of National Moth Week. This day-active moth is found throughout most of Canada and the eastern U.S. Its wing are clear […]
Happy Moth Week! Crotalaria & Co-evolution
Lots of people love only some Lepidoptera. It’s the beautiful butterflies that get nearly all of the attention. Moths, the other Lepidoptera, often get overlooked perhaps because most of them are creatures of the night and some of them are drab. National Moth Week is […]
Poke-Weed Wednesday & the U.S. Constitution
On our field trip on 7-21-2018 to Treasure Shores Park, we saw American pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) growing in a recently disturbed area not far from the lifeguard station. Last year, this area (shown below) was filled was dead beach naupaka (Scaevola taccada), an Florida Exotic Pest […]
Rainbows, Circles & Pirates
Tom Wilson (Class of 2017) shared this stupendous photo of a rain clouds and a rainbow at Treasure Shores Park prior to our field trip there on 7-21-2018. The early bird gets the worm (or the rainbow). Treasure Shores park no longer has lifeguards (due […]
Robber Fly: Check out those Eyes
This robber fly was perched on a tough bully (Sideroxylon tenax) at Treasure Shores Park when we visited there on June 3, 2017. Robber flies belong to the family Asilidae. Florida has more than 100 species, and nearly 1,000 species are found in North America. Check out […]
Weeds of Wednesday: Danglepod
We saw danglepod (Sesbania herbacea), growing along with sweetscent (Pluchea odorata), in a disturbed area near the pedestrian path at the Fellsemere Trailhead when we visited on 7-15-2018. Danglepod is a native annual of moist, disturbed places. In 2008 when the 5-acre abandoned citrus grove […]
Camphorweeds: Daisies without Petals
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 […]
Fellsmere Preserve Trailhead Field Trip
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 […]
Weeds of Wednesday: Coffee Senna
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 […]
Diverging Trails
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.
