Spectacular Spikes

Coralbean (Erythrina herbacea) sports striking spikes of tubular scarlet flowers throughout the winter and early spring.  Hummingbirds and long-tongued butterflies nectar on its flowers. Flowering seems to be earlier on Orchid Island than on the mainland.  This showy native plant…

Weeds of Wednesday: Common beggarticks

Our Florida state butterfly, the zebra longwing loves it, but lots of gardeners do not.  It is common beggarticks (Bidens alba).  Common names for this plant are about as common as this plant and include Spanish needles, butterfly needles, romerillo,…

A Tale of Two Asters

We saw two "asters", daisy-like plants, on our visit to Toni Robinson Waterfront Trail (TRWT) on 12-8-2019 led by Terry Greene (Class of 2019).  One of them was the prevalent and perennial climbing aster (Symphyotrichum carolinianum), shown above.  Once known…