Lupines Still Popping Up; Cogon Grass Even More So

 

This afternoon I found more Scrub Lupine seedlings, all of the new ones in and around the first planting area.

I also found a second plant from last year's crop whose flag had faded so much I had not noticed it earlier.

One of the seedlings appeared to have died already, which is not unusual. The test will be to see how may survive until the summer rainy season.

Meanwhile the Cogon Grass patch at the southeastern corner of the northern tract continues to spread untreated. At last check it seemed to be spreading toward the eastern fire lane rather than westward toward a small patch of Clitoria fragrans that only inhabits that part of the preserve.

Many years ago there was a small patch of Cogon Grass in that section of the fire lane. I duck it up and bagged and then brought in some Natal Grass from elsewhere in the preserve to outcompete, which it did for many years.

This is no longer a small patch and if my friends from FWC are reading this, you might want to check out the situation.

  

Lupines Slowly Emerge

 I have been visiting the preserve more of less weekly to check on the emergence of Scrub Lupine seedlings in the various planting areas.

As of today, 21 seedlings have appeared and been flagged. There is also a single surviving seedling from 2023.

Most of them are in the older planting areas, portions of which are still more open and free of leaf litter than the third planting area. That area is badly overgrown and needs some serious management attention, though it is unclear how soon that will occur. It still contains some mature plants that appear to be healthy and should bloom again this spring if they survive.

I have visited the volunteer sights farther west a couple of times and so far have seen no seedlings.

That section has never been burned. It was not burned because the lupines were discovered there just before the planned landscape burn that occurred in 2008.

I was wondering whether fire would result in more seedlings popping up from the old seed bank in that section of the property. No Scrub Lupine emerged anywhere else on the property after the fire.

Blue Lupine did emerge a couple of times in the sandhill area where a relic population of Clitoria fragrans survives, but it was just a single plant and did not persist.