Lupine program Saturday will include Lake Blue

I'm looking forward to a program Saturday at Bok Tower that will provide an update on the Scrub Lupine project.

The plantings at Lake Blue, which were the pioneer effort, will be included in the discussion. I'm told more plantings are planned elsewhere in Polk and in Orange County and perhaps in Lake County.

This is an important element of the recovery plan, which envisions establishing several populations.

We're still early in this. For instance, one thing to watch will be whether any recruitment occurs. We'll be looking next spring.

Checking the south fence

I visited the neglected south tract this afternoon and found an ear tree had fallen on the fence. There was no other damage. I fixed it by removing the tree and renailing one piece of fence that was down.

In the open areas on the northeast corner, Paronychea was common. This area remains open for some reason, which is good, because it's the only place in the fire lane where I've seen Polygonella basiramia.

There were a few beer b0ttles and cans near the employment office.

The dominant plant in the fire lane appears to be ragweed, though there is Natal grass on the edges and sand spurs, partridge pea and various grasses.

Still raining, weeding easier

It has been wet recently, for a change. The rain gauge read 2 inches, so all of the plants, including the naughty ones, are getting plenty to drink.

The upside to all of this is that the moist soil makes weeding easier, so I've been taking advantage of this to remove Natal grass in some key areas to keep it from taking over.

In other places I'll leave it alone because there's simply too much to deal with manually unless I want to nake Natal grass removal a full-time job.

One thing I've noticed is the proliferation on Polanisia tennufolia in numbers I've never noticed before.

A captured feather

I was trekking across the scrub recently and encountered a feather snagged on a Bumelia.

I'm not totally sure what bird species shed it. It appears to be a larger species, though. A Great Horned Owl hunts here. So do hawks. I'll have to run it by someone who knows more about feather identification.

Usually I find wing or tail feathers, which are a little easier to sort out. This is more of a challenge, but worth sharing.

Tarflowers, not tarballs

One of the few showy blossoms at the moment in the scrub is the Tarflower, which is pretty widespread in scrub and scrubby flatwoods.

The plant gets its name from the sticky tarlike chemical on the flowers. The adhesive chemical traps some small insects, though I'm not exactly sure how that benefits the plant, which also attracts other pollinators.

They're relatively prominent shrubs in the aftermath of the mechanical clearing.

Roaches

I'm up to six species of roaches at Lake Blue Scrub.

I found the lastest addition when I was doing some night insect surveys earlier this spring.

The species list is:

Sand cockroach (Arenivaga floridensis)

American cockroach (Periplaneta americana)

Florida woods cockroach (Eurycotis floridana)

Wood roach (Parcoblatta sp.)

Pennsylvania wood roach (Parcoblatta fulvesence)

Green banana cockroach (Panchlora nivea)

Butterflies are returning

I crisscrossed the north tract today to see what the butterfly situation was now that summer is nearly herel.

Ceraunus Blue was the most numerous. There were 24. Nevertheless, that's far less than the 103 I had around the same date last year.

Tentatively, I'm attribtuing the decline to the severe winter.

I will monitor this summer and fall and see what the changes are.

Note: Common Buckeyes were more numerous this year. It's a mixed year.