Springtime Nature in SW Florida

Now that we are clearly into springtime (I am writing this on March 26 with spring arriving March 19), various new natural events are occurring that mark the warming temperatures.  The blooming of lupines and tar flowers in scrubby pine flatwoods habitat is a momentous occasion for these are beautiful and interesting plants.  Lupines (wolf plants) are characteristic of very poor sandy soils and were inappropriately considered by early settlers to steal the fertility of soils rather simply tolerate them.  Tar flowers similarly tolerate very low nutrient levels and are considered an example of the earliest form of insectivory in which insects stuck to the flowers eventually drop to the ground where they may be absorbed by the roots.

Water lilies which have just begun blooming have a wonderful but very primitive flower that has an unusual and complicated method of pollination involving entrapment of insects in a bowl of fluid  (https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/pollinators/Plant_Strategies/entrapment.shtml).

Although we of course associate leaf fall in trees with Fall, such is not the case in Florida.  Leaves of sea grape and some mangroves have recently been falling stimulating new leaf growth.  The dying leaves of sea grape are particularly colorful.  Recently fallen leaves are visible washed up by the tide along the shoreline.

A common but unfortunate practice to avoid having to pick up dead fronds of cabbage palms is to trim them harshly once a year.  Removal of so many green leaves is very detrimental to the growth of the tree and you can observe an example along our yard boundary.  On the left is our palm which has never been trimmed and it has a very healthy crown and trunk.  On the right is a palm which has been trimmed for years by our neighbor (notice the tiny tuft of leaves left after a recent trimming), and you will also see that the trunk is skinny and misshapen, presumably from the lack of nutrition.

After a winter of very poor blooming, the gorgeous native coral honeysuckles are in full bloom and are quite spectacular.  They await the arrival of migrating hummingbirds which will pass through in April after crossing the Gulf, heading further north.  This is also the time of flowering of purple wreath, Petrea, from tropical America.  It has a much shorter bloom time than honeysuckle but provides an amazing display of bluish colored flowers for several weeks and attracts many bees.

Our bottlebrush plant from Australia is also in full bloom and attracts pollinators with its copious nectar.  A monarch butterfly is shown here partaking of this bounty.  I also noticed the first black swallowtail of the season, a recently emerged bright male which mimics the toxic pipevine swallowtail.  Since we lack almost all garden crops our local large white butterflies are not the non-native cabbage white but the native great southern white which lays eggs on salt wort.  .Note the striking pale blue tips on the antennae.

The springtime activity of fish is mostly hidden from us but this tiny young green needlefish was visible at the surface at our Lemon Bay dock.

Reptilian activity has definitely picked up.  Snakes are not often seen but this young chicken/rat snake is blotched instead of marked with stripes as are the adults.  Why is there such a difference in coloration of adults and juveniles?  Camouflage for the young snakes is served by the blotches whereas predators find it difficult to strike with the fast movements of the adults and their longitudinal stripes.  The red morph of the mangrove snake is rarely seen and provides (with the darker blackish morphs) another example of color/pattern variation presumably linked to camouflage against the variable colors of the mangrove swamp.    I have seen very few non-native black iguanas during the winter- clearly they aestivate during cold weather and are now becoming quite active.  These two adults in my front yard were fighting by biting each others jaws presumably in a contest over territory.   Finally I have seen several FL softshell turtles basking to elevate their body temperatures above that of the water.  This would improve digestion and likely speed up development of the eggs in females.

One of the most characteristic sounds of spring is the male territorial song of redwing blackbirds in local marshes.  These birds spend most of the winter in large flocks but return to individual breeding territories in springtime.  The appearance of white pelicans in large flocks overhead will soon be the herald of their return to breeding territories in western N America.  Two other commonly seen white water birds are great egrets and juvenile little blue herons.  The significance of white color in predatory water birds is not clear but must be related to the type of prey and the efficiency of foraging techniques used by birds that are white or darkly colored (such as adult little blue herons).

So get out there and ENJOY springtime!  There is no time that excites the soul so much and replenishes our feeling of oneness with nature.