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.

Gyrochopping arrives; it'll never look the same

This week a worker from FWC was busily gyrochopping a portion of the North Tract. He said the South Tract will get attention eventually. I'm glad I knew about it, because I was able to explain what was happening to county folks who had received calls and to one of the neibghbors.The big question will be the results. That may take some time (I don't know how much, though) to appear. In the best-case scenario, Bonamia etc. will explode. In the worst-case scenario, so will Natal grass and cogon grass. It would be funny if Lupinus aridorum were to pop up on its own next year. It will be interesting to watch. The Clitoria fragrans area was cleared. I didn't see any of the plants in a superficial search of the area where they have been living, but disturbance may favor them.I let the Archbold folks know the latest. Eric Menges said they'll be monitoring the results and compare it to prescribed burn results.

Fire strikes, but not hard enough

I was checking the fence line this week and found there had been a small fire in the back area by the TECO substation. I don't know whether it was a lightnintg strike or something else, but it was interesting. Too bad it didn't get a little more out of hand, since there's no homes to threaten in that part of the preserve, so all it would have done is to renew the landscape. OK, it might have spread some exotics, too, but that's happening anyway.