Pickerelweed

Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata)

Here's another common wetland plant of freshwater habitats of the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge. Not quite a local specialty, we enjoy it also when we visit the Adirondacks in August. There it is common in the "Newton Falls pond" reach of the Oswegatchie River and likely also in the nearby Chaumont Swamp.

We might marvel that this plant thrives as well 1,200 miles north in New York State's Adirondacks as it does in Florida, but in fact its geographic range is even broader, extending from Nova Scotia to Argentina. Surely pickerelweed is another of Nature's winners.