Spring is Very Close in SW Florida

As I write this on March 5, official Spring is just a few days away on March 20. We see very little ecological indicators of Spring here in SW FL since the rains are still about two+ months away and little growth of plants will occur this late in the dry season without that rain. The rain is especially needed this year along the coast since low lying areas were flooded with sea water during hurricanes Helene and Milton (Oct 9, 2024). Those plants that were inundated and were not halophytes are in a process of recovery or not based upon the degree of damage from aerosols and ground salination.

A recent sunrise on Feb. 25, 2025, out my back door shows a slight amount of clouds with little hint of rainfall to come anytime soon. An inspection of the area of Blind Pass beach just a few miles north of my house illustrates the violence of hurricane Milton on Oct. 9. The coastal road was torn completely apart and even the metal guard rail was twisted into a pretzel! Sarasota County anticipates that the road will be closed for at least 2-3 years. If they are smart they will close it permanently since they just spent $4 million fixing it after the previous hurricane.

There are some beautiful flowers blooming now in the late dry season. The roseling or pink spiderwort is a flower that often responds to recent fire. The amazing sky blue lupine is a late winter bloomer with or without rain. It is very tolerant of dry and nutrient poor sandy soils. Early farmers used it as a bioindicator of poor soils useless for agriculture and blamed the “rapacious” wolf plant. But of course the plant only adapts to soil conditions and does not cause them. The bean family can fix atmospheric nitrogen and this gives them a huge advantage in colonizing nutrient poor soils.

The heath family of plants are especially tolerant of nutrient poor soils also. This coastal rusty lyonia has flowers typical of heaths and will remind you of the related blueberries. It is interesting that the heaths specialize in colonizing nutrient poor wetlands and dry scrub lands also with similarly low levels of nutrients.

Some wetland plants such as the spectacular blue flag iris are starting to bloom as are the related tiny blue eyed grass.

One of my favorite winter blooming non-native trees is the Hong Kong orchid. Bauhinia x blakeana ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhinia_%C3%97_blakeana ). It blooms profusely all winter attracting butterflies and hummingbirds. It is a sterile hybrid and thus poses no threat to native ecology. There are no native trees which bloom in winter time with these characteristics.

Butterflies have been noticeably absent in the past months with very few exceptions. This monarch was nectaring on a non-native Panama “rose.” I have also seen very few odonates and this band winged dragonlet was a rare exception,

Non-native iguanas are generally despised by gardeners since they will eat plants. Probably their reptilian nature does not endear them to people in general. But they are far less damaging to ecology than feral cats and probably even unleashed dogs. In any case I have decided to accept the black iguanas or ctenosaurs which have shown up in my yard recently and see what happens. So far I have been able to control their herbivory by putting cages around some plants and by feeding them collard greens which they seem to like better than do most people. Indeed this female has a very rotund belly full of collards!

A native skink was a rare sight out on the surface but note that it has a broken off tail due most likely to an attack by a predator. These skinks are thought to be toxic but little is known about that.

Alligators enjoy the sunny winter days and take every opportunity to bask. This chance to raise their body temperature must increase their metabolic and digestive processes.

Birds remain active all winter of course. Just two examples of aquatic birds are this non-native gray necked swamp hen at Celery Fields and a pair of blue winged teal at Lemon Lake. Look carefully at the enormous feet of the swamp hen which can virtually walk on water if there are some floating plants around. I have long had a family of screech owls in a nest box in my yard. This red morph female is looking around in late afternoon contemplating getting out to feed at dusk. An even smaller bird is the burrowing owl which digs a hole in the ground of grassy prairies. This particular “prairie” is actually a residential neighborhood of lots for sale which are mowed by the owner. Without this mowing the area would revert to dense brush and trees eliminating the owls. So this is a rare example of development providing useful if transitory habitat for a bird.

Rabbits have always been problematic for gardeners as extolled in the “peter rabbit” chronicles. I try my best to coexist with them by putting small fences around cherished plants. This young cottontail has a taste for the red flowers of powderpuff (from Bolivia) and reaches up as high as it can to grab a flower and munch it down.

Gardening is as varied as the people who practice it ranging from dominance of the landscape and removal of natives to planting of natives and removal of non-natives. I fall somewhere in between as I cherish natives but am mainly trying to create a wildlife-friendly habitat in the winter of SW FL where few natives bloom in winter. Thus I sometimes find myself with a 50:50 split between natives and wildlife friendly non-natives that are not invasive or can be controlled. It is interesting that apparently one’s politics and religious preferences have a strong relationship to your gardening philosophy! Here is one link of which there are many:

https://www.cheaperthanpsychotherapy.com/blog/2018/5/19/republicans-vs-democratic-gardeners

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