Buttonbush

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis) plants seem to be flowering abundantly this year, although until this one, I've had trouble getting a good photo of one.

Lots of Deer This Year

This photo, taken through the screen on our back porch, shows a doe and what appear to be twin fawns. At least one other doe, this with a single fawn, shows up with them sometimes. For the most part they are quite tame. Our dog pays them little heed, and they aren't intimidated by him. One possible reason they have been hanging out in our lawns is to get out of the woods and away from the mosquitoes, which have been very bad since Tropical Storm Debby.

Florida Maple

Florida Maple is one of our more interesting plants here in the north central part of the state. Some botanists consider it a subspecies or variety of the sugar maple (Acer saccharum...variety floridanum), while others consider it a separate species (Acer barbatum or Acer floridanum, the two names only adding to the confusion).

Whether or not it is truly distinct from the sugar maple, the two appear to be very close relatives.

A reminder: sugar maple is the source of that stylized red leaf adorning the national flag of Canada. 

So what are trees so dominating much of Canada that they are considered the symbol of the nation doing in Florida? One thing they are doing differently here is generally growing in the understory, rather than as the dominant tree in the upper canopy, as in much of the north. We've seen fairly large specimens in San Felasco Hammock State Preserve, but never so tall that they over-top other species.


One possible answer may lie in their ecological specialization. The one thing these trees do better than almost any other is tolerate shade. For this they pay a price, because nearly all the adaptations for tolerating shade tend to make trees poorer at conserving water. In the north (in the Adirondacks and much of northeastern and north central U.S., as well as in Canada) where it is cool and moist they can use their shade tolerance, enabling them to shade out competitors and dominate the forest canopy. Here in the Florida peninsula, however, they require the shade, humidity, and soil moisture retention of rich woods where other tree species help them avoid excessive moisture loss.


Any other suggested answers will be welcome.

Showy Native Plants

Two plants in our backyard are natives that are showy and good for landscaping.

Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) is a vine with red flowers that are especially attractive to hummingbirds. It is difficult to imagine flowers better adapted to the long beaks and narrow tongues of nectar-seeking hummingbirds. New plants spring up frequently in other parts of the yard, and it seems likely that the hummers are responsible for dispersal of seeds.

Beautyberry (Calicarpa americana) also shows up frequently as a volunteer, as is the case of this one. The lavender flowers are small and relatively inconspicuous, but they are replaced later in the season by vivid purple-red berries. For this plant, it is probably berry-eating birds that are responsible for dispersal.

Plants Rule!

They won't let me out unless I promise to provide more generous rations of MiracleGro.

Needle Palms and Other Palms

On Monday's walk in the San Felasco Hammock State Preserve, we spotted along the Creek Sink Trail what is almost certainly a needle palm. In the photos above you see a plant without the upright or prostrate stem, evident most other (but not all) local palms, and shiny dark green leaves not seen in saw palmettos. It has true palmate fronds, unlike cabbage palms. We also saw what we believe are dwarf palmettos. We'll have to investigate further, but believe they differ in subtle ways from the scrub palmettos that grow all around our house. We would appreciate any comments or corrections from those who know their palms better than we do.

A Skink

Here's a small skink seen on our deck this afternoon. S(h)e was pretty, colorful, and remarkably tame.

Interestingly, this individual may represent one of three remarkably similar species--so called sibling species. This one could conceivably be the eastern five-lined skink (Eumeces fasciatus), the broad-headed skink (Eumeces laticeps), or the southeastern five-lined skink (Eumeces inexpectatus). The last was named by taxonomist E. H. Taylor, who never expected until his technical investigations discovered it that another species was lurking in this complex of similar-looking lizards.

We suspect that this one is laticeps, based not on counting scale rows or similar taxonomic indicators, but rather on the other lizards we see around us.

Thirty years ago, a colleague and I challenged the conventional wisdom on the function of the blue tail-coloration, which is seen mostly in young animals. Contrary to prevailing thought (to trick predators into aiming for the detachable tail), we proposed that its true function was to identify young lizards to older individuals and to prevent attacks on their own young by the large and voracious adult males. No one seems to have have taken up the challenge, so our ideas seem to have carried the day (or to have been completely ignored).