You will find Walter and Karin Taylor at most Florida Wildflower Foundation and Florida Native Plant Society events, many times volunteering their time to speak to others or sit at information tables and promote wildflowers.
This bloom report is from March 2017. Earlier-than-normal blooming of spring wildflowers is occurring more often, but this year stands out because some wildflowers are blooming nearly a month earlier than expected.
The Bombyliidae family is large and diverse. Members nectar at flowers in the composite family. Bee flies are true flies that imitate bees to scare predators away.
This bloom report covers summer wildflowers to look for in moist and wet areas and at the coast. There are also plenty of summer orchids to look for in South Florida.
A visit to Cape Coral’s Rotary Park Environmental Center includes an opportunity to become acquainted with Florida’s beautiful wildflowers. With funds from the FWF’s Viva Florida Landscape Demonstration Garden grant, a native wildflower garden has been planted near the park’s education center.
Halictidae, or sweat bees, are an extremely diverse group that are often abundant year round. Some are metallic green, others are smaller than a grain of rice, and nearly all are valuable pollinators.
Five grants were awarded in 2020: Cutting Horse Eco-Center, Bonita Springs (Lee County); Folly Farm Nature Preserve, Safety Harbor (Pinellas County); Orange County UF/IFAS Extension, Orlando; Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens (St. Lucie County); and Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation (Lee County).
Get to know Florida Wildflower Foundation member Janice Broda. Janice has been attending Foundation field trips, symposiums and webinars regularly since 2014. She has served on the board of directors of the Indian River Mosquito Control District for 30 years.
A Florida Wildflower Foundation member for more than a decade, Phyllis Stopford is devoted to learning about native plants. The more she learns about the beneficial quality of native plants, the more her perspective grows.
Viceroy and Monarch butterflies are distantly related through the family Nymphalidae. They have evolved to mimic each other through Mullerian mimicry. Although they are similar, you can spot the differences in a few ways.
There is nothing more iconic to the Florida summer coastal scene than Sea oats (Uniola paniculata) swaying to the sea breeze in the dunes. The flowers of this tall and sprawling grass provide pollen to a variety of insects, and the seeds are eaten by beach mice, rabbits and birds.
