What's in Bloom
February 2010
Florida's Violets
by Sid Taylor
Dr. Wunderlin has 26 Viola listed in his Vascular Plants of Florida, 18 of which are synonyms. Narrowing this list for the color blue and Hernando and Citrus Counties leaves four to be discussed here. Shirley Petty is my personal authority on violets, and I am using her local plant lists. Walter Kingsley Taylor is the reference which aids in descriptions (see below).
Viola sororia (syn: V. floridana, V. palmata var. sororia, and V. affinus) is the Common Blue Violet. This violet has 5 floral parts. Flowers are solitary, stalked, spurred, and petal bearded. Basal leaves are smooth, triangle shaped, and shallowly toothed. Habitat preference is damp and it flowers winter and spring, throughout Florida.
Viola palmata (syn: V. palmata var. triloba, V. septemloba, and v. esculenta) is the Early Blue Violet. Flower is the same as above. Basal leaves are dissected into several lobes. (First leaf is simple and entire.) This plant prefers the damp pinelands of Central and North Florida, and blooms winter and spring.
Viola villosa is rare, occurring in the north peninsula south to Hernando County, and in Hamilton County. Common names are Carolina Violet and Southern Downy Violet. Leaf blades are heartshaped to reniform (kidney-shaped), and densely pubescent with strigose trichomes (sharp, straight, appressed hairs all pointing in the same direction).
Viola walterii is Walter’s Violet or Prostrate Blue Violet. It occurs in Citrus, but not in Hernando County, and the panhandle of Florida. Flowers are 2-lipped blue, streaked with purple. Leaves are ovate, green with purple veins above and entirely purple below. It is a violet of upland mixed-forests and bluffs.
Violets have two types of flowers. The early, showy floral bouquet is to attract pollinators and thus insure out-crossing (sharing of genetics). These conspicuous flowers have insect landing-pads formed by interior petals, often spurred and containing nectar. Later there are cleistogamous flowers which produce seeds that are genetic clones of the parent plant. Enjoy the former floral jewels now. Soon they will exit with hot weather. When our violets appear, we know Spring is on the way!
Taylor, Walter Kingsley. The Guide to Florida Wildflowers. Taylor Publishing: Dallas, TX. 1992
Taylor, Walter Kingsley. Florida Wildflowers in Their Natural Communities. University Press of Florida: Gainesville, FL. 1998
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Upcoming Programs
March – Mushrooms
April – Wildflower
May – Sea Level Rise
June - Sandhills
July – Garden Party
Sabal minor E-news
Are you getting your Sabal minor on-line? If not, the Society may not have your correct e-mail address. Please send it to info@fnps.org to keep up with all the FNPS organizational news. You can also get the Sabal minor on-line, in pdf and expanded web page format.
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Shop for Native Plants when you Shop On-line
Many of us shop on-line. It's easy, fast, and our good are delivered right to our home. Gifts go to the door. Now you can send some bucks to FNPS each time you order those flowers or binoculars or beauty supplies. GoodShop gives a percentage of each sale to the charity of your choice. You can easily select Florida Native Plant Society, and find almost every merchant you'd normally visit. It costs you nothing, and helps to expand our efforts on behalf of Florida's native plants. Click here and bookmark it!
Monthly Meeting & Program
Hernando County's Environmental Sensitive Lands Program (ESL)
Jim King, Land Manager, Hernando County ESL
Monday February 1, 2010
American Legion Hall, Brooksville
Cypress Lakes Preserve in east Hernando features several important ecosystems which are being improved through volunteer efforts and prescribed fire. This preserve hosts extensive hiking trails which introduces the public to a wide range of our native plant species.
Our program will feature Mr. Jim King, Conservation Lands Specialist, speaking about Hernando County's Environmentally Sensitive Lands (ESL) Program, a voter-approved grassroots initiative that permits Hernando County to purchase valuable tracts of land in order to preserve natural resources. Participants will learn where our preserves are located and how they can become part of the team that restores and maintains these areas.
Jim King, a Florida panhandle native, graduated from the University of Florida with a Bachelor of Science in Forestry degree, majoring in Wildlife Ecology. He spent nearly two decades in the insurance industry, has worked for the Suwannee River Water Management District, as a Consulting Ecologist in private business and is in his third term of employment with Hernando County.
Hernando County’s Environmentally Sensitive Lands (ESL) Program exists to preserve a part of Hernando County’s natural and cultural heritage. It began as a grassroots initiative which resulted in a referendum approved by Hernando County voters in 1988. The referendum authorized collection of ad valorem tax revenues for thirty years by the county to acquire environmentally valuable tracts of land and to protect their natural resources (but did not include maintenance).
Program guidance is provided by an Environmentally Sensitive Lands Committee comprised of lay people and specialists, and by the Board of County Commissioners. Four Hernando Chapter FNPS members currently serve on the Committee: Eugene Kelly, Mike Liberton, Jim Clayton and Vince Morris. Project areas provide direction for acquisition activities. The ESL Program has purchased three preserves and contributed funds for an overhaul of Bayport Park.
Support is provided by a volunteer program which assists with physical work on the preserves. The ESL program conducts outreach to the public by providing guest speakers to groups, by conducting guided nature walks on the ESL preserves, and in making the preserves available to others for educational purposes. The preserves are open to the public during daylight hours and passive public recreation opportunities are provided, mostly with hiking trails. Funding for the ESL Program can continue until 2018.
Spotlight on ESL Lands
by Mark Hutchinson
Hernando County currently manages three ESL (Environmentally Sensitive Lands) Preserves: Cypress Lakes Preserve, Fickett Hammock, and Peck Sink Preserve. All of these properties are easily accessible on foot and are owned by the public, so take the time to enjoy the beauty of some of Florida’s native plants and animals.
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Fickett Hammock Preserve consists of 115 acres of native hardwood hammock habitat, typical of the Brooksville Ridge environment prior to development. Fickett Hammock is located Northeast of Brooksville on the South side of Centralia Road, a couple hundred yards west of Citrus Way.
The Peck Sink - east of California Street, west of U.S.41, south of S.R.50, and north of Wiscon Road -includes 112 acres central to the eleven thousand acre watershed recharging the Florida Aquifer through Peck Sink. The primary goal of this project is to improve the quality of the watershed runoff prior to entering the Aquifer at Peck Sink. Native habitats include hardwood hammock, freshwater marsh and wet prairie.
There are two additional projects being considered for acquisition and inclusion in the ESL program; the Withlacoochee State Forest (WSF) Connector Project and the Little Withlacoochee Riverine Corridor. The WSF Connector and Little Withlacoochee Corridor projects together cover several thousand acres in north central Hernando County, adjoining Citrus County, extending east to the Sumter County line. The primary purpose of these two projects is to assure future connectivity between the Citrus, Headquarters, Croom, and Richloam tracts of the Withlachoochee State Forest preventing future fragmentation of the forest and promoting greater biodiversity. The total acreage consist of multiple ecological communities including the scarce and endangered scrub and sandhill habitats, as well as mesic hammock, fresh water marsh, bottomland forest, and cypress swamp. A major priority of the Little Withlachoochee Corridor is the conservation of a contiguous floodplain and wetlands area in Hernando County. For a recent article on nominated lands, click here.
For more information about the Environmentally Sensitive Lands and possible future acquisitions see: http://www.hernandocounty.us/PLAN/ESL/default.htm (at the time of this writing, this website was outdated, but should be updated soon)
Get Outside in the Green Swamp– Feb 27
With the release of their new recreation guide, SWFWMD is encouraging the public to take advantage of the recreation opportunities available on District lands. As part of the campaign, the District is also hosting community events to showcase District lands.
February 27, you can experience the Hampton Tract, a critical piece of real Florida with your friends and neighbors. The Green Swamp's vast landscape serves as source of four major rivers, including the Ocklawaha, Withlacoochee, Peace and Hillsborough rivers. The District will host exhibits and hikes.
To get to the Hampton Tract entrance, take Hiway 98 south of Zephyrills to Rockridge Rd. Turn left and head northeast 7 miles to the intersection of Rockridge and Deen Still Rd. For more information about the Hampton Tract, including maps, see http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/recreation/areas/greenswamp-hampton_tract.html
