Wildflower Ramble 03.04.11 – It is Spring for Sure!

After the “long hard winter” it is definitely Spring at Wildflower Preserve. There were some unmistakeable signs of warmer weather this first week of March. The most significant change was that lots of dragonflies were present flying around up and down the open areas and near ponds. I got photos of some juvenile green darners, likely recently emerged from our ponds, and some black saddlebags/gliders that are probably recently arrived southern migrants. There were quite a few blue dashers and some other species I did not see well.

Pond two had a very interesting color change on the surface from all green duckweed to a speckled look due to the emergence of a lot of reddish brown floating fern called Azolla.

I noticed some of our first real native wildflowers in bloom, the yellow daisy-like camphorweed, Heterotheca subaxillaris. The bay lobelias started blooming several weeks ago. Many more flowers are yet to come.

Our old friends the little blue heron and snowy egret were hanging around as usual.

I saw quite a few mangrove buckeye butterflies, the first for many weeks, and one red admiral, a new butterfly for the park.

So for those who say that Florida has no Spring, I say go out and look around and see the signs all around us!

Bill Dunson, Englewood, FL & Galax, VA
wdunson@comcast.net

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