Educational Story The Dahoon holly, Ilex cassine, is a medium to small evergreen tree that can be found growing in Mesic Flatwoods and wet locations like swamps. Like most hollies, it is dioecious, producing individual plants that are either male or female. Leaves are smooth and shiny, and make an ideal hedge with attractive white flowers….
Category: Baygall
Feay’s Palafox (Palafoxia feayi)
Educational Story The Feay’s Palafox, Palafoxia feayi, is a native, herbaceous perennial plant that occurs in scrub and sandhill habitats in Florida. This species produces strong, tall stalks with small oval leaves. It is in the aster family, but its flowers are unusual, consisting of a open, round head of tubular disc flowers with no…
Fetterbush (Lyonia lucida)
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Fourpetal St. John’s Wort (Hypericum tetrapetalum)
Educational Story The Fourpetal St. John’s Wort, Hypericum tetrapetalum, is a small woody shrub with few branches that can be found growing in pine flatwoods throughout Florida. It occurs only in Florida and limited areas of Georgia. This species can be identified by its brilliant yellow flowers, with four petals and heart shaped leaf bases…
Goldenrod (Solidago stricta)
Educational Story Slender Goldenrod, Solidago stricta, is one of many species of goldenrod that can be found throughout Florida growing in sandy, well-drained soils. Goldenrod species are perennial herbs in the aster family and have small, bright yellow flowers borne on long flower stalks called a panicle. Slender Goldenrod has small erect leaves that press…
Hooded Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia minor)
Educational Story The Hooded Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia minor, is a carnivorous plant that lives in wet areas like swamps and bogs in the southeastern coastal plain of North America, ranging from coastal North Carolina through south-central Florida. It has long upright tubular leaves with deep cavities that are perfectly evolved to trap unsuspecting insects using…
Pond Cypress (Taxodium ascendens)
Educational Story The Pond Cypress, Taxodium ascendens, is a tree that lives in swampy ground, but can adapt to drier lands. Its seeds need wet soil to germinate. This tree species can be found in depressional areas that hold water, slowly colonizing the middle of the depression and moving outwards. A cypress population in a round…
Sabal Palm (Sabal palmetto)
Educational Story The Sabal Palm, Sabal palmetto, is the official state tree of Florida and South Carolina. It grows in sandy, well drained soil in part shade. Its singular trunk can reach 30 feet in height. Fan-shaped leaves, palm fronds, grow from the top of the tree from a single apical meristem, which is the…
Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens)
Educational Story First described and named by William Bartram on his travels through Florida in the late 1700’s, the Saw Palmetto, Serenoa repens, is a major ground cover shrub occurring in many upland flatwoods ecosystems in Florida. This low-growing, sturdy palm is also used widely as a landscape plant. The thick stalks creep along the…
Slender Flattop Goldenrod (Euthamia caroliniana)
Educational Story The Slender Flattop Goldenrod, Euthamia caroliniana, is a fall-flowering herbaceous perennial plant that produces flowers similar to flowers of the typical goldenrod genus, Solidago. The small yellow flowers have a more elegant and ethereal form than a typical goldenrod, but are equally attractive to bees and other pollinators. It flowers from July into October and…
Wax Myrtle (Myrica cerifera)
Educational Story The Wax Myrtle, Myrica cerifera, is a small shrub-like tree that has smooth, light grey twisted trunks with thin bark. It occurs throughout the southeastern coastal plain and the Caribbean. It has short, narrow, leathery leaves with serrated edges that contain aromatic compounds. When the leaves are broken or bruised, they give off…
Wiregrass (Aristida stricta)
Educational Story Wiregrass, Aristida stricta, is an extremely important understory groundcover in flatwoods and sandhill ecosystems throughout the southeastern coastal plain. It is also sometimes referred to as Pineland threeawn. This narrow leafed wiry grass grows in clumps and can reach heights of up to 2 feet. Flowering stalks may be up to 3 feet, Wiregrass…