Fall Arrives, But Some Wildflowers Waiting

 

Today was the first day of fall and I went out in the midday heat to find out what was blooming.

It was mostly an early purple affair. The Chapman's Blazing Star were rife in their usual spots on the preserve's west side.

In the center were an impressive array of Scrub Blazing Star. 

I saw one blooming Scrub Morning Glory and the Scrub Holly berries are emerging, but are still green.

I noticed a handful of the McFarlin's Lupin have survived their first summer, which is a sign they may survive to adulthood, but there is another summer between now and then.

Still holding off from flowering here are the Carphephorous and the Balduina, both of which are still in the bud stage.

I noticed the recent rains have turned up more broken glass and I found an intact beer bottle and wine bottle that re likely courtesy of the generosity of the neighbors.

I guess will have to return with a grabber and a bucket to remove them from the landscape.

Seedlings Survive Tropical Storm Debby

 I went out today to check on storm damage, but noticed fresh tire tracks that led me to conclude FWC folks were on the job. 

I did check the second Scrub Lupine planting area and found all of the seedlings appeared to have survived after surviving the hot spring weather.

Let's see if they survive until next spring and grow to maturity. 

I checked on the Clitoria fragrans, too. It seems to be holding on, but could use some new material.

The rain also exposed more formerly buried trash, I will return to collect.

I noticed that in the east-west corridor near the second lupine planting area there is an abundance of Septic Weed/Coffee Senna, probably brought in by mowing equipment, Sleepy Orange likes that, as I recall.

  

Some Lupine Seedlings Survive Until The Start of the Rainy Season; Most Do Not

 I made a quick survey of the lupine patches in the afternoon summer heat today.

I stopped first at the second planting area and found eight of the 12 seedlings that emerged this year still alive, though some were less robust looking than others.

I headed north to the call of a Northern Bobwhite somewhere in the fencerow. It was the first one I had heard there in a few years.

The fire lane appeared to have been recently mowed, exposing a lot of small debris that I will deal with in cooler parts of the day.

I finally reached the first planting area and found one lone surviving seedling among the 64 I had flagged earlier this year. It was at the northern edge of the east-west path.

I will come back later to remove the flags/

I was thinking I had kept numbers in previous years, but apparently I did not.

A quick word about June weather.

The National Weather Service, this was the fourth warmest June on record with an average temperature of 84.4 F. Official rainfall was 7.4 inches, but at my house,, which is about halfway between Gilbert Field and the preserve, I recorded 8.9 inches.

Despite Record Dry May, Some Lupine Seedlings Survive

 My is always a tough time for Lupine seedlings because of the typical heat and lack of rainfall.

According to the National Weather Service in Ruskin, the average temperature in Winter Haven last month was 82.9 F, which is the hottest since the station began keeping records in 1941.

Rainfall was 2.61 inches, but most of that fell in a single day in the middle of the month. There has been no measurable precipitation at my home a mile from the preserve  since May 16.

In the first planting area, 8 of the 65 seedlings flagged earlier this year are still alive.

In the second planting area, 10 of the 12 flagged seedlings are surviving.

In the third planting area, which is the worst managed of the site, all four seedlings are dead.

That means that so far the survival rate is   about 20 percent, which is encouraging. 

Rainfall is predicted this week. 

Cogon Grass Control At Last; Mid-Spring Seedling Survival

 

I visited the site today and was pleased to see that there had been some great work done to whack the Brazilian Pepper on the periphery and to zap the Cogon Grass that had been expanding over the past several years in the southeastern corner of the north tract where a small population of Clitoria fragrans survives.

As I understand it, additional treatments will probably be necessary. 

Meanwhile, I spent some time today tallying the mid-spring survival rate of the McFarlin's Lupine seedlings.

With all apologies to T.S. Eliot, when it comes to lupines, May is the cruelest month.

Temperatures have reached the 90s and there has been no measurable precipitation.

In the first planting area, there are 19 live seedlings and 54 dead ones.

In the second planting area, there are 10 live plants and 2 dead ones.

In the overgrown third planting area, there are 2 live plants and 3 dead plants. 

The number of dead plants are likely to increase as I observed some with withered lower leaves.

I will follow up at the end of the month as the rainy season, if it occurs, begins.

 

McFarlin's Lupine Gains Full Species Status; New Justification For Increased Protection, Improved Site Management

 

The pink-blossomed lupine that grows here is finally a full species again and this time it looks as though the designation will stick.

Although a local botanist named James Brigham McFarlin wrote in the early 1930s that this lupine was likely a separate species, he never formally described it.

That task fell to John Beckner, who published the first formal description in 1982 and named it Lupinus aridorum. However in 1986 another botanist named Duane Isley wrote that it was a variety of Lupinus westianus., a species found in the Florida Panhandle.

Now thanks to the recently published results of detailed genetic and morphological analysis of lupines throughout Florida  by Edwin Bridges and Steve Enzor, the plant has regained its full species status. 

According to an article  published in the latest issue of Sabal Minor, the Florida Native Plant Society's bimonthly newsletter, the reclassification provides greater justification for more efforts to protect the few remaining populations.

The article says that Bridges and Orzell have concluded that now that the uncertainty over whether this  was a separate species or merely a variety of another species found in the western Panhandle has been resolved, its status has changed from Globally Vulnerable to Globally Imperiled.

That, in turn, could help to attract state and federal resources to prevent its extinction.

Here at the preserve that would certainly mean opening up more of the terrain around the planting sites to provide better conditions for seed germination and pant survival.

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Lupine Seedling Count Increases Slightly

 I continued the survey of what should be near the end of seedling emergence.

The total as of today was:

First planting area:  85 seedlings.

Second planting area: 12 seedlings.

Third planting area: 4 seedlings.

Today I found one new seedling in each planting area.

As expected, several of the seedlings have died already,

I will follow up at the end of the dry season to check on the survival rate.

I also checked the fence line on the south tract. There is still a cherry laurel blocking the fire lane.

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