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- The paddling route from a N Port quarry across to the M S Forest campgorund
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- The start of the paddle in the quarry was smooth
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- The participants examine a recently burned pine flatwoods for flowers
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- The underground tubers of the blackroot were indeed dark colored
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- There were large numbers of the rarely seen Florida or Feay’s milkweed
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- This female coontie quickly regrew lush leaves after the fire
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- Flowers of the rose rush were common in the burned areas
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- This tiny Ceraunus blue butterfly was seen in the area burned about 3 months before
Allain Hale from the Sierra Club organized an exploratory paddling trip for four of us across the Myakka River from Campbell Rd in North Port to the riverside campground in Myakka State Forest. This was an adventurous loop of about 3.5 miles starting in a large quarry, continuing down a narrow creek with extensive sand bars, and across a broad tidal river with strong NW winds blowing.
On landing at the campground on the western bank of the river, we gladly left our cramped seats in kayaks and walked through pine flatwoods within Myakka State Forest, last burned in November, 2016. Such burning sometimes stimulates the growth of flowers and I have in the past observed thousands of pink spiderworts blooming here after a burn. In this case however we found only one spiderwort, but there were large numbers of blackroot, Florida or Feay’s milkweed and rose rush in bloom. Even though the rarely seen native milkweeds were “lush,” their leaves are narrow and the potential food for monarch caterpillars is minimal. This explains why local butterfly enthusiasts who grow monarch caterpillars have to use exotic Mexican and giant milkweeds for food. The tubers of blackroot were indeed dark colored, and these roots which are a food storage organ for the plants, have been used for various medicinal purposes.
Fire stimulated bright green re-growth in coontie and the palmettos were in full bloom.
One of several butterfly species we observed was a tiny but beautiful Ceraunus blue. The eye spot on the rear of the hind wing likely serves to divert the attack of predators away from the real head.
The explosion of flowers we observed about three months after a fire in this area was remarkable and it is worth looking in recently burned areas of flatwoods over time to observe this spectacular but ephemeral phenomenon. I have also seen it occur along the Gordon Smith Trail, which can be accessed by driving into the forest from River Rd and walking to the trail head.