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.

 

Lupine, Leaf Litter And More

 One of the most obvious failures of a work day several years ago involving Duke Energy at the preserve was the lack of a long-term plan to control  regrowth of the tree canopy.

As anyone who has a tree in their yard or a neighbor who has tree can attest, trees shed leaves annually and someone has to deal with the results.

In some habitats that is no big deal because the leaves have an ecological benefit and are better left where they fall.

In scrub habitat it can be a bit more challenging.

This is true here regarding the attempt to create a sustainable population of Scrub Lupine, which was recently once again described as a separate species from another lupine in the Florida Panhandle and is extremely rare.

It does not do well with a lot of tree canopy, which has overwhelmed the latest  planting area and created a lot of leaf litter and that is the challenge in the most recent planting area here.

Today I set out with a rake to deal with the leaf litter, but it seemed that stronger measures might be appropriate.

In the most recent planting area, I found one seedling after raking the leaves and another after checking the remains of a dead plant and still another amid the little bare ground amid some sprouting oaks.

I was still removing old flags from previous years and while I was at work found one survivor from last year's seedling emergence that will need some help to see the sun.

The earlier planting areas--especially the first one--are badly overgrown.

.I do not have any herbicide to treat the small stumps, but may use spray paint as an interim treatment I will report how that works out.

      

A New Lupine Season, Slowly

 

I went out this afternoon for the first survey of 2024 for Scrub Lupine seedlings.

So far, only about half a dozen seedlings have emerged, mostly in the second planting area and generally on the periphery.

I have removed all of the old flags from previous years so there is no confusion about the current distribution. The numbered disks remain in the ground.

The most recent planting area, which still contains some adult plants that may produce more seeds this spring,  was notable by the absence so far of seedlings, The area is extremely overgrown, shaded and covered with leaf litter, the last of which is the only issue over I have any control at the moment.

The ground is more intensively covered with spike moss than it was when the original plantings occurred.  I am not sure how that affects seedling emergence.

Meanwhile, data submitted to iNaturalist indicates there has been a proposed split among Florida lupine species that includes the determination that Lupinus aridorum is now considered a separate species and not a subspecies of L. westianus, which is found in the Florida Panhandle and adjacent areas of the Southeast.

I have not seen a paper redescribing the species and do not know whether the change is being accepted.

 

Old Milwaukee Old Trash

 

While I was wondering through the southern tract earlier this week in a fruitless search for the emergence of Ghost Pipes, I found something else.

\It was a faded aluminum beer can that bore the Old Milwaukee logo.

I find odd single cans like that occasionally.

I also found the head of doll. I have no idea of its origin or provenance.

Later on, I discovered someone had cut the fence on the northern boundary where land has been cleared but never developed a year or so ago.

I came out later to repair the fence and to put the FWC boundary sign on the right side of  the fence and picked some additional trash.

I will check again on the Ghost Pipes later. A wet winter is predicted and that seems to bring them out.

 

FWC Meeting Today Was Encouraging

 I had a cordial meeting today with some FWC staff folks to discuss management issues affecting the Scrub Lupine restoration project.

The takeaways I got was that they would no longer send equipment down the path next the first planting area, would agree to conduct some temporary trimming to reduce the canopy overgrowth in some of the planting areas and will plan a more extensive removal and herbiciding of overgrowth within the next year as the budget allows.

They also said they would like to burn the site again and asked how that would affect the lupines. I referred them to Cheryl Peterson at Bok Jack Stout at UCF, who are much better informed than I am.  

I also briefly mentioned the trash pile near the southwest gate and tree fall along the fence lines.

I also reported recent hog damage and told them that there was probably a lot of background info they might find useful on the site's chronology on this blog.

Hog Damage Is More Extensive

 

While I was out checking trails today, I found a patch of extensive hog rooting along a section of the western fire lane.

The mystery is how the animals are getting in since the new fencing installed a few years ago seems to be a better barrier than strands of barbed wire.

In addition to this, in fire lanes in the scrub areas. there are a lot small excavations that look like maybe exploratory though whether hogs or some other animal is responsible is a mystery. I have never seen anything like it.

One more thing to discuss at next week's meeting with FWC folks.

   

Fall Discovery, Hogs & Orchids

 I was walking the trails today to discover traces of litter such as pieces of broken glass, metal and plastic from the site's heritage as a dump site.

I  also found some abandoned shell  casings from earlier hunting expeditions and fresher evidence of the need for a hunt.

Most of it was in the small bayhead in the southwest corner of the north tract.

There was obvious hog damage among the Cinnamon Ferns.

But there was more. The orchids are beginning to emerge and  I found a previously undiscovered  fruiting Dahoon Holly after all of  these years here. 

It was a successful expedition.