There are now two giant dustbowls developing in the eastern hemisphere: one in sub-Saharan Africa, the other in central Asia, western Magnolia, and eastern and northern China. Read more about how overgrazing and goats are changing our planet at the Earth Policy Institute.
Michael Compagno, an attorney at the South Florida Water Management District, took this striking photograph of the pink lady's slipper in June of this year while hiking a trail in Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. The plant grows in a wide variety of conditions, from lightly shaded to full sun and from wet to dry. However, it has three absolute requirements: highly acidic soil, freedom from the competition of taller plants, and rather cool summer temperatures. Here it is growing with a rich assemblage of plants that includes Clintonia borealis, Cornus canadensis, Coptis trifolia, and Trientalis borealis.
Nymphaea odorata, the white water-lily, was observed growing in a garden pond at the home of Cecily Hangen in West Palm Beach, Florida, during this year's Palm Beach County Florida Native Plant Society's yard tours. Rob Hopper pointed out that it is among the most fragrant of water-lilies and that many hybrid water-lilies owe their fragrance to this species
Nymphaea odorata is a common aquatic plant with a huge range from Alaska in the north to Central America in the south, as well as the Bahamas, Cuba, and Puerto Rico. Its occurrence in both Cuba and Puerto Rico is unusual since Nymphaea odorata has not been recorded in Hispaniola, the large island comprised of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which lies between Cuba and Puerto Rico. In the United States, Nymphaea odorata has been recorded from every state except Hawaii, North Dakota, and Wyoming. In Florida, it has been recorded from every county, and is expected to occur in all counties; however, it has not yet been recorded, in the form of herbarium specimens, from Calhoun, Hardee, Indian River, Liberty, Monroe, St. Johns, St. Lucie, Seminole, Suwannee, and Union counties
Ipheion uniflorum 'Alberto Castillo' is a small, South American bulbous plant in the onion family. Flowers are typically some shade of blue but 'Alberto Castillo' is a robust, large-flowered plant with pure white flowers that was originally collected in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A few bulbs were given to me by Rob Hopper. I grew the bulbs as potted plants but Rob also planted them in the ground, where they grew equally well and freely flowered.
In 2010, I came across seeds for sale of Phacelia purshii, an annual native to Ontario and much of the eastern United States. Since it has showy flowers noted for their distinctively fringed petals, I decided to try to cultivate it and purchased a packet of seeds. Based on the foliage alone, I quickly realized that the seeds were not Phacelia purshii. Upon flowering, the plants keyed out to Phacelia divaricata, a very different species native only to eastern California, from the Klamath ranges, south to the San Francisco Bay region and the inner south coastal ranges.
Seeds germinated readily, the seedlings grew very rapidly, and they quickly flowered. Just as quickly, however, the plants set seeds and died. However, during the several weeks that they were in flower, the plants produced attractive masses of lavender-blue flowers with pale, almost white centers. The petals were marked with translucent patches of tissue and this was unlike anything that I had ever seen in any flower. These translucent patches can clearly be seen in the above image of the flowers.
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| Young seedlings of Phacelia divaricata. |
I have never seen seeds of Phacelia divaricata for sale under that name and I assume that, like so many native plants, it's charms are overlooked because it does not originate from some far-off exotic land.
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On Saturday, February 26, 2011, Ryan Leavengood and I visited the home of fellow Florida Native Plant Society member, Michael Manna. The following is a brief account of that visit.
The variety of plants grown by Michael was amazing but four principal groups stood out in my mind: Florida native plants; carnivorous plants; utilitarian plants such as edible, medicinal, or herbal plants; and a variety of tropical plants, most notably, orchids and bromeliads. One remarkable plant that did not fit any of these categories was a venerable Florida cracker rose that was growing to perfection and had beautiful, dark green foliage unblemished by even a hint of disease or insect damage. Among the utilitarian plants, there were a variety of spinach substitutes, as well as a dwarf everbearing mulberry tree, with the fruits of the latter proving a great delight to Michael's daughter, the 18-month-old Willow.
Michael is perhaps best known for his carnivorous plant collection and he grows a wide variety of butterworts (Pinguicula species) and Asian pitcher plants (Nepenthes species). Also well represented are sundews (Drosera species) and American pitcher plants (Sarracenia species). Unfortunately, at the time of our visit, the American pitcher plants were mostly dormant so we had to content ourselves with admiring the freshly developing flower buds, which promised a bountiful show of blossoms a little later in the year. Also present in Michael's collection of carnivorous plants was the Albany pitcher plant (Cephalotus follicularis), which grows in the vicinity of the town of Albany in southwestern Australia, as well as the rainbow plant (Byblis liniflora), also hailing from Australia and named for its linear leaves bedecked with dewy glands that beautifully glisten in the sunlight.
Although many Florida native trees and shrubs are grown by Michael, the most interesting native plants for me were the numerous native wildflowers that he cultivated. The list is a very long one and included many small, colorful plants that are rarely ever grown by gardeners of any kind, whether focusing on native plants or not. Among these were Polygala lutea (orange milkwort); Dichanthelium species (witchgrasses); Xyris species (yellow-eyed-grasses); and Viola species (wild violets), of which Michael had three different species, this being the largest number I have ever seen in a south Florida garden. Also noteworthy, among so many other noteworthy plants, was a tub of the native yellow-flowered water-lily, Nymphaea mexicana.
The images below represent a small sample of the many beautiful plants Ryan and I observed during our visit:
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| Achillea millefolium (yarrow) is grown for both its ornamental and herbal uses. |
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| Brugmansia (angel's trumpet). |
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| Cephalotus follicularis, the Albany pitcher plant. |
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| Drosera binata var. binata, a striking sundew native to Australia and New Zealand. |
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| Drosera burmannii, an annual Asian sundew that readily spreads by way of self-sown seeds. |
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| A view of the greenhouse, where most of the Asian pitcher plants are kept. |
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| Pinguicula 'Aphrodite', a hybrid butterwort whose parents are Pinguicula agnata and Pinguicula moctezumae. |
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| Pinguicula gigantea, note the numerous tiny gnats that have been trapped by the plant. |
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| A beautifully grown old fashioned Florida cracker rose. |
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| The native Tillandsia fasciculata, one of many bromeliads in the collection. |
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| Verbesina virginica, white crownbeard, growing with the native grass, Panicum dichotomiflorum var. bartowense |
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| Viola palmata has dark violet-purple petals when the flowers first open. |
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| Viola palmata flowers continue to enlarge, and become more pale, as they age. |
On January 29, 2011, approximately 15 members of the Palm Beach Chapter of FNPS went on a field trip to the Winding Waters Natural Area, a 550-acre preserve that protects large areas of pine flatwoods, cypress forests, and marshes, as well as constructed ponds and wetlands. The field trip was lead by Steve Pisano, an Environmental Analyst with the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resource Management. Following are a few images from our field trip.
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| Euthamia caroliniana |
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| Heliotropium polyphyllum |
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| Pluchea carolinensis |
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| Dichanthelium species |
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| Gamochaeta pensylvanica |
Caliente® is a series of Pelargonium hybrids developed by Syngenta for increased heat tolerance. The plants have great hybrid vigor, which results from crossing zonal pelargoniums (Pelargonium × hortorum) with ivy pelargoniums (Pelargonium peltatum). Although touted on various web sites as suitable for the deep south, the Syngenta web site lists the heat tolerance of the Caliente® series as moderate, that is, 70–80° F (21–27° C), which does not appear to be much, or at all, greater than the heat tolerance of typical zonal pelargoniums. Perhaps the plants are being compared, not to zonal pelargoniums, but to regal pelargoniums (Pelargonium × domesticum) and to regular ivy pelargoniums (Pelargonium peltatum), both of which tend to have low heat tolerance. In any event, the Caliente® series can be expected to burn out during south Florida's torrid summers; however, for reasons that are not too clear, when grown in pots the plants tend to be much more heat tolerant than if planted in the ground, especially if protected from the intense afternoon sun.
Fire '09 is a Caliente® cultivar characterized by very dark green leaves and intense tomato-red flowers. Unfortunately, it is all but impossible to capture the true color of its flowers with either film or digital cameras and the above image has an orange tone that is completely lacking when the flowers are viewed by the human eye. Fire '09 is listed by Syngenta as PPAF (plant patent applied for), which precludes its vegetative propagation without a license from Syngenta.
Scutellaria arenicola was named by John Kunkel Small in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club in 1898. Over 100 years have elapsed since then and it is still essentially unknown in cultivation in spite of being nearly pest-free, easily grown, and bearing masses of large, colorful flowers. In nature, it occurs in sandhills and scrub and this might account for its rarity in home gardens. Plants from these habitats are often difficult for home gardeners to maintain unless the garden has very deep, sandy soil; however, that is not the case with Scutellaria arenicola and it readily adapts to a wide variety of garden conditions so long as it is provided with full sun and is not shaded by taller plants.
Plants die down to basal rosettes in the autumn and spend the winter in a more or less dormant state. With the arrival of warm weather in the spring, the rosettes take on a striking and distinctive deep burgundy color. Even if it never flowered, it would be worth growing for this beautiful foliage display. With spring rains, the stems rapidly elongate to 1—1.5 feet (30—45 centimeters) tall and produce sparsely branched spikes of large, dark lavender-blue flowers accented with a contrasting white throat. In the wild, stressful conditions usually result in plants that consist of a single rosette bearing a solitary spike of flowers. But with richer soil and more consistent watering, garden plants form many rosettes that bear large masses of flowers. Its horticultural uses are varied but it is perhaps best suited as a groundcover in sunny areas and as an accent plant in perennial flower borders, wildflower gardens, and cottage gardens. It may also be profitably used to provide color in herb gardens since it combines well with traditional herb garden plants. And, of course, it may be grown as a potted plant.
Fortunately, propagation is as easy as its cultivation and Scutellaria arenicola may be readily propagated by dividing the clumps of rosettes, by rooting cuttings, or by seeds. Every flower seems to produce seeds and, if allowed to do so, a single plant will form large colonies that become a carpet of lavender-blue in the spring. Although it is a long-lived perennial, plants will flower in a few months from seeds.
As is the case with all plants, Scutellaria arenicola does have a few drawbacks. Although it will tolerate surprisingly wet soil, the soil must be very well drained and it will not do well in an area where there is standing water after heavy rains. As mentioned above, it demands full sun and, although it will survive in the shade, it will bear few or no flowers. Although Scutellaria arenicola flowers throughout the summer and autumn, another drawback is that the flower buds produced during hot summer and autumn weather usually go directly to seed and do not produce the large, showy flowers.
To my surprise, Scutellaria arenicola has relatively few wildlife benefits and, although the flowers show all the hallmarks of being adapted for pollination by bees, I have not observed an insect visiting the flowers in over 15 years of growing the plant. Likewise, nothing seems to eat the foliage although occasionally plants stressed by extended drought will be attacked by non-native scale insects. However, cultivated plants can form rather large colonies that can cover many square feet of ground and as such they provide shelter for insects, spiders, lizards, and other small animals.
Scutellaria arenicola is native only to parts of Georgia and to Florida, where it occurs from Columbia County in north Florida to Highlands County in central Florida. Additional records, separate from its principal range in central Florida, have been reported from Lee and Collier counties in southwestern Florida.
