Blooming beauty in the scrub

When I walked into the preserve today I was greeted with the sight of what seemed like hundreds of blooming Dayflowers (Commelina). I'd never seen so many of these common flowers at one time, but I'd never been a newly cleared scrub habitat, either.

Meanwhile, the Clitoria fragrans is blooming more vigrously than I've ever seen, putting on quite a show after popping up finally from the gryrochopping. I guess I'm wondering whether they'll take a second hit when the stacking and burning crew comes in.

Had a work day today. We removed some of the encroaching exotics from the southeast corner where there was lightning fire or something recently that burned a small area.

Sand Torches are blooming, so is Curtiss' milkweed.

Rain, regeneration in rollerchopland

I went out to check on things this afternoon in the area that was mechanically cleared a few weeks ago.

Bonamia appears to be sprouting in many places, presumably where it was before. I main run some GPS transects just to verify this. Also, I was pleased to see that the Clitoria fragrans has come back after being initially MIA.

The recent plentiful rains have probably helped in this regard. The drought appears to be over.

I've got a work day coming up and I noticed the Lygodium and Cogon Grass has been persistent near the base of a downed tree. Also, the ear tree that Mike and I thought we dug up at the last work day has sprouted from a root segment. I'll have to clear a work area to take care of that.

Raking the path

It occurred to me today that I want to rake the north-south path to remove as much debris as possible to keep the area open for Sand Skinks et al.

Gleaning the trash

I did a walk through this afternoon after finishing a minor fence repair. I filled a bucket of miscellaneous trash and collected a plant specimen I have yet to identify.

What a fire exposes

There have been two fires recently, each less than an acre. One was in the section outside the fence by the TECO substation. The other was along Hobbs Road and spilled over into the southwest corner of the preserve that had been gyrochopped.

I've been out collecting trash that was suddenly visibile after being virtually invisible among the saw palmettos.

Both fires have caused Cogon grass to sprout, so it's on the march again after being brought under control. I've been promised a new herbicide to deal with it.