The Rhexia

Paynes Prairie Chapter of the Florida Native Society www.paynesprairie.fnpschapters.org!! !!! November 2017 General Meeting Niche evolution in the genus Liatris Election of Officers Anthony Melton, PhD Candidate, UF Tuesday, November 21, 2017 !Please join us as we tend to the business Phillips Hall, Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship of the chapter by electing new officers at the 4225 NW 34th Street, Gainesville, FL 32605 general meeting on November 21, 2017. Our Anthony Melton is a PhD candidate at the thanks to nominating committee members University of Florida. Anthony graduated from the Mark Elliott, Karen Schneider, and Karen University of Montevallo (Montevallo, AL) in the Garren for preparing the following slate for spring of 2013 with a BS in Biology and then your consideration. began his graduate career at Auburn University (Auburn, AL). While at Auburn, Anthony became President: Mark Elliott increasingly interested in Botany and niche Vice-President: Currently Open evolution while studying genetics in members of Secretary: Ellen Thoms the genus Marshallia () for his Master’s Treasurer: Goldie Schwartz

Thesis. Directors: Anthony is broadly interested in evolutionary Michael Bubb biology, particularly molecular and niche evolution Connie Caldwell and the process that drive them. His dissertation Jill McGuire research is focused on patterns and drivers of Karen Schneider niche evolution in the genus Liatris (Asteraceae). Dan White

He is also involved in research that investigates Chapter Rep: Sandi Saurers the evolution of that have an Eastern Asia – ! Eastern North American disjunct distribution, !Nominations will also be accepted from effects of climate change on plant communities, the floor at the meeting. Notice the vice community phylogenetics of regional flora, and president’s position is open. If you have conservation genetics of endangered . considered taking a more active role in the Anthony will discuss his research on niche chapter, perhaps this is the opportunity evolution in the genus Liatris, as well general you’ve been waiting for! interesting Liatris species, Liatris ecology, and their roles in ecosystems.

Chapter Contacts, Field trip info...... Page 2 Oct. Plant ID workshop report...... Page 5 Withlacoochee SF field trip report...... Page 6 BB Brown field trip report...... Page 3 Sponsors...... Page 7 Lyrene yard tour report...... Page 4 Calendar...... Page 8 The Rhexia Paynes Prairie Chapter Florida Native Plant Society November 2017!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!! Page 2

Paynes Prairie Chapter Contact List November Yard Tour Home of Mark Elliott, Gainesville President Saturday, November 18, 2017 Rob [email protected] Vice President On Saturday, November 18, at 9:00 AM, we'll be Mark [email protected] gathering at the home of Mark Elliott in northwest Secretary Gainesville. It'll be interesting to see his yard in the Ellen [email protected] fall, since the last time we were there, 2013, was in Treasurer March. For directions, contact Connie Caldwell at Goldie [email protected]!352-495-3983 [email protected], or for carpooling, meet at Chapter Representative the Publix parking lot in Hunter's Crossing, corner Sandi [email protected] of NW 43rd St. and NW 53 Ave. at 8:15 AM. Director Connie [email protected] Carl’s Garden Workday Scheduled Director Saturday, December 9, 9:00 a.m. Karen [email protected] Director !It’s that time of year again. The air has cooled Jill [email protected] off and we’re all feeling like getting out in our yards (finally!) to spruce things up. Well, the Paynes Director Prairie Chapter also has a demonstration garden Michael Bubb [email protected]fl.edu that we maintain at the Kanapaha Veterans Director Memorial Park. Dedicated to the memory of Carl Dan White [email protected] Miles, who was an avid native plant lover, we’ve Field Trip Coordinator been caring for this native plant garden for 12 years. We will be meeting at 9:00 am on the Karen Garren!!iluvfl[email protected] morning of December 9 at the garden. Bring a Newsletter Editor shovel, clippers, gloves, sunscreen, and water. We Karen [email protected] will be spreading concrete fines on the pathways, Membership Chair so if you have a portable wheelbarrow, that would Goldie [email protected]!352-562-3831 also be helpful. !After our hard work has been completed, we’ll Plant Rescue adjourn for a nice lunch. The address is 7400 SW Jamie [email protected]!352-375-1972 41st Place (at Tower Road). If the gate is open Plant ID when you get there, you can drive right to the Paul [email protected] garden which is just to the west (left) of Chapman’s Chapter Website Maintenance Pond. For more information about Carl’s Garden, Karen Schneider!karenks98@yahoocom please see “Who was Carl Miles” in the September 2005 Rhexia available on our website at Facebook Page Maintenance http://paynesprairie.fnpschapters.org/data/uploads/ Lisa/Howard [email protected] newsletters/2005/sept05rhexia1.pdf. We look forward to seeing many of you there! Chapter Website! www.paynesprairie.fnpschapters.org Photo Credits: Our thanks to Wesley Hetrick for The Rhexia is published eight times a year by the permission to use his photo, Sunrise at Paynes Prairie, on Page 1. See more of Wesley’s images at Paynes Prairie Chapter of the Florida Native Plant https://www.flickr.com/photos/wesleyhetrick Society. Comments are welcomed. Readers are Also to Peter May for permission to use his Rhexia photo. encouraged to submit articles and images for publication See more of Peter’s work at consideration to [email protected] http://www2.stetson.edu/~pmay/index.htm The Rhexia Paynes Prairie Chapter Florida Native Plant Society Page 3 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! November 2017

Field Trip to B B Brown’s Gardens tagging was being performed during the day of our By Rob Garren visit so we got to observe that process as well. !We followed Marc around over the course of a !On Saturday October 21st, Dr. Marc Minno led couple hours and I must note that, as expected, his us on a field trip to B B Brown’s Gardens, a 15 acre knowledge of butterflies, their lifecycles, and their former citrus grove located west of Lake Minnehaha is truly remarkable. Marc found a number near Clermont. The property was purchased by of butterfly larvae hidden in rolled-up leaves, twigs, Bruce and Cathy Brown in 1996 and soon afterward and other places where one would not necessarily the Browns were about to build a Florida Cracker think to look. We did manage to add a few new style cabin on the property when they read an article plant species to the cumulative list, including in the paper about the sale of two complete towns interrupted fern (Thelypteris interrupta), indian that had been built in central Florida by Warner crabgrass (Digitaria longiflora), pangolagrass Brothers Pictures as movie sets for the film (Digitaria eriantha), whisk-fern (Psilotum nudum), Rosewood. All of the buildings on the sets were to Florida airplant (Tillandsia floridana), and possibly be auctioned off. The Browns bought one of the viviparous spikerush (Eleocharis vivipara) at the cabins and had it moved to their property. The cabin lake edge. Control of exotic plant species that do is where our field trip began when we met Cathy not provide butterfly forage or larval food is an and Bruce as well as their dog Charlie Brown. ongoing, daunting task as one might expect. Rose !Since 2003, with the help of a number of natalgrass (Melinis repens) is a widespread, volunteers, they have been working to restore the common invasive species along with several site to native scrub habitat. They have planted over crabgrass (Digitaria) species. 10,000 native trees, shrubs, !I highly recommend a visit and herbs on the property to B B Brown’s Gardens if since that time. In addition you want to see restoration to the former citrus grove of central Florida habitat in (originally scrub) habitat, the action. Cathy and Bruce property also contains a have spent considerable small unnamed lake as well time and money in their as a willow swamp. The effort to restore and property is also home to a preserve a little piece of small scrub jay population what used to exist in this and is a founding member of part of Florida. With the the Florida Scrub Jay Trail. demise of much citrus There are currently some 65 acreage due to freezes, gopher tortoise burrows on pests, and other causes the site as well. A small over the past several plant nursery also has been decades, perhaps they have established at the cabin to started a trend which will sell butterfly-friendly bear fruit over the coming flowering species. Finally, Portulaca pilosa, photo by Rob Garren years. Natural habitat of the there is a small breeding central Florida ridge has group of Sicilian Miniature Donkeys in a pen – these been under increasing stress in recent decades and, animals are used to teach animal husbandry – as given the presence of many endemic plant species well as some chickens and a vegetable garden. found only in this small area and nowhere else !Dr. Minno makes a monthly visit to the property worldwide, it is increasingly important to preserve to inventory existing fauna and flora, particularly and restore what we can before it is all gone. butterflies and their larvae. He has documented Thanks to both the Browns as well as Marc Minno over 300 plant species since initiating his monthly for allowing us to “tag” along on their monthly foray. “bioblitz” on the parcel. Additionally, butterfly I am sure a return visit will be in the works. The Rhexia Paynes Prairie Chapter Florida Native Plant Society November 2017!!!!!!!!! Page 4 Planting on a seepage slope - October yard tour report by Connie Caldwell !Our October 14 yard visit took us to the home of gamma grass (Tripsacum dactyloides, which we Paul Lyrene, who lives with his wife Irma on a learn was once thought to be an ancestor of maize), seepage slope next to Barr Hammock on Paynes Simpson’s stopper (Myrcianthes fragrans), blue curls Prairie. We were lucky enough to have David Hall on (Trichostema dichotomum), river oats the tour, a professional plant taxonomist who was (Chasmanthium latifolium), and others, all waiting for able to identify most of the plants we saw. The house their place in the landscape. Paul tells us that he and plantings are located on the higher five acres doesn’t mow until June 15 in order to enjoy the spring that they own; the five acres abutting Levy Lake wildflowers that grow among the grasses, and then (which is more a prairie than a lake) are left to be he only mows five times during the year after that. natural. The seepage slope drops gradually 30 feet He points out a number of grasses and weeds as we to reach Levy Lake, and the sandy topsoil is just one walk along on them, and he tells us he recommends foot deep, above an 8 inch phosphate rock layer, centipede grass because it seldom needs mowing. below which lies soft sand. Water from Hurricane !We proceed towards the back of the house, Irma is still seeping along the slope, five weeks later! passing elderberry (Sambucus canadensis), !Paul has researched and speculated about what yellowleaf hawthorn (Crataegus flava), tree has taken place on the property in the past, and sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboretum), St.Andrew’s- concluded that part of it had been an open field, cross (Hypericum hypericoides), Elliott’s blueberry which was abandoned 80 to 100 years ago. When a (Vaccinium elliottii), pokeweed (Phytolacca large loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) fell during the recent americana), various morning glories (Ipomoea spp.), storm, he was able to calculate the age of the even ironweed (Vernonia sp.), yellow jessamine larger ones to about 80 years. Other trees growing (Gelsemium sempervirens), winged sumac (Rhus here include pignut hickory (Carya glabra), sweetgum copallinum), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) , (Liquidambar styraciflua), basket oak (Quercus tall redtop grass (Tridens flavus), parsley haw michauxii), flatwoods plum (Prunus umbellata), (Crataegus marshallii), and American snowbell Carolina basswood (Tilia americana var. americana), (Styrax americanus). A large colorfully flamboyant southern magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora), laurel oak bed of flowers greets us in the back - narrowleaf (Quercus hemispherica), live oak (Quercus sunflower (Helianthus angustifolius), Mexican coral virginiana), water oak (Quercus nigra), and cabbage vine (Antigonon leptopus), mistflower, , palms (Sabal palmetto, which Paul says grow here Pentas, and a tall grass that we learn from David Hall “like hairs on a dog’s back”!). Paul’s area of is Florida jointtailgrass (Coleorachis tuberculosa). expertise being blueberries, we learn some things Very tall bamboo poles, harvested from a large about the genus Vaccinium. For example, palms and bamboo clump, support the vines, and Paul tells us blueberries do not grow on the same soil; the pH is that the poles sometimes will sprout and grow there! too high for the blueberries. We learn about the !Paul grows a lot of fruit trees - citrus, persimmon, history of the term Vaccinium: a plant of the same mulberry, jujube, and others, and he points out genus, “cowberry”, which grows in Sweden, is examples of fruit trees that he has grafted onto hardy relished by cows and the connection with the name rootstock, and others - mandarins - that he has has to do with getting the vaccine for smallpox from grown from seed. Although his specialty is cows that have cowpox. Interesting! blueberries, he learned right away that they will not !We walk toward the house on a wide path edged grow on this soil. But he found that by creating a by pinxter azaleas (Rhododendron canescens), mound of different soil, he could proceed with some persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), snow squarestem of his experimentation in interbreeding various (Melanthera nivea), goldenrod (Solidago sp.), Vaccinium species. mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum), and Spanish !We move on now toward the citrus grove. Along needles (Bidens sp.), all thriving among the larger the way Paul points out three types of yaupon (Ilex trees. In pots in front of the house are eastern vomitoria) varieties growing together, all of which are The Rhexia Paynes Prairie Chapter Florida Native Plant Society November 2017!!!!!!!!! Page 5

October yard tour (con’t from page 5) female. Since Ilex are dioecious, Paul has placed a male yaupon in a pot next to them. The first year he got a large crop, then very little - (what’s up? he wants to know). We pass frostweed (Crocanthemum carolinianum), firebush (Hamelia patens), mulberry (Morus sp.), juba’s bush (Iresine diffusa), Bidens, hemp sesbania (Sesbania herbacea), lyreleaf sage (Salvia lyrata, which grows throughout the grasses here), rattlebox (Crotalaria sp.), spiderwort (Tradescantia ohioensis), elephant’s foot (Elephantopus elatus), dayflower (Commelina sp.), guinea hen weed (Petiveria alliacea), beautyberry (Callicarpa americana), and hammock snakeroot (Ageratina jucunda) which is about to burst into bloom. !And this is the end of our tour since we’re told that the lower part of the property, the natural part, may be harboring snakes that are fleeing higher water levels! !Thank you, Paul, for all you have taught us, and for your hands-off care of the sensitive lands that you own. Image courtesy of courtesy USF Image Plant Atlas http://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/photo.aspx?ID=1214

Plant ID Workshop for October 2017 Compiled by Paul Cohen and Rob Garren Plant ID Workshop October 2017 † Physostegia virginiana (L.) Scientific Name Common Name Family Status Benth. has been recorded in Bidens mitis SMALLFRUIT BEGGARTICKS Asteraceae Native Jackson County, Florida in Calyptocarpus vialis STRAGGLER DAISY Asteraceae Native areas where it was unlikely to Carica papaya PAPAYA Caricaceae Native have escaped from Commelina erecta WHITEMOUTH DAYFLOWER Commelinaceae Native cultivation (Personal Conoclinium coelestinum BLUE MISTFLOWER Asteraceae Native communication with Floyd Physostegia virginiana† OBEDIENT PLANT Lamiaceae Not Griffith in Alford, Florida Native? located in Jackson County). Rhynchospora colorata STARRUSH WHITETOP Cyperaceae Native Alan Weakley, Director of the University of North Carolina Native Plant Raffle herbarium, feels that P. Scientific Name Common Name Family Status virginiana is native to Chionanthus virginicus WHITE FRINGETREE; OLD-MAN'S Oleaceae Native Jackson County. Prof. BEARD William A. Watts (1930–2010) Glandularia maritima COASTAL MOCK VERVAIN Verbenaceae Native did extensive research on the Hibiscus aculeatus COMFORTROOT Malvaceae Native Palynology of Eastern North Kosteletzkya pentacarpos VIRGINIA SALTMARSH MALLOW Malvaceae Native America including studies in Monarda punctata SPOTTED BEEBALM Lamiaceae Native Florida Salvia misella SOUTHERN RIVER SAGE; RIVER SAGE Lamiaceae Native (https://www.tcd.ie/Botany/as Sorghastrum secundum LOPSIDED INDIANGRASS Poaceae Native sets/pdf/environmental-scien Spigelia marilandica WOODLAND PINKROOT Loganiaceae Native ces/Rev%20P%20P%20Brad Sporobolus junceus PINEYWOODS DROPSEED Poaceae Native shaw.pdf) and has references to the paleo flora of Florida in

Thank you to everyone who contributed plants and expertise. The workshop is intended to the Quaternary but so far has be educational not a plant ID service. Nomenclature adapted from Atlas of Florida Vascular not found any evidence of the Plants (http://www.florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/). species in Florida prior to colonialism. The Rhexia Paynes Prairie Chapter Florida Native Plant Society November 2017!!!!!!!!! Page 6 Field Trip Report – Croom Tract, Withlacoochee State Forest Photo and text by Karen Garren !On a beautiful October morning, a group of Florida grasshopper. The forest supports numerous research native plant enthusiasts followed biologist Colleen Werner projects – Colleen enjoys working with graduate students. to view the autumn wildflower bloom in the Croom Tract of Dozens of caves are managed at various levels of the Withlacoochee State Forest. Beneath a robin’s egg disturbance: low intensity visitation by the public, entrance blue sky, a whispering canopy of longleaf pines (Pinus by permit only, and completely off limits, in order to protect palustris) and hardy turkey oaks (Quercus laevis), golden bat colonies. plumes of lopsided indiangrass (Sorghastrum secundum) !Down a seepage slope, unburned late-successional waved along the Florida Trail. Scattered shrubs included hammock tree canopy now included pignut hickory (Carya sand live oak (Quercus geminata), laurel oak (Q. glabra), persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), and Florida hemisphaerica), bluejack oak (Q. incana), sand post oak maple (Acer saccharum subsp. floridanum) while longleaf (Q. margarettae), sparkleberry (Vaccinium arboreum), and pines gave way to loblolly and slash pine (Pinus taeda and shiny blueberry (V. myrsinites), with summer grape vines P. elliottii). Shrub layers included spotted beebalm (Vitis aestivalis) clambering atop. Winged sumac (Rhus (Monarda punctata) and Cherokee bean (Erythrina copalinum) added ruby patches of color, pocket gopher herbacea). At the bottom of the slope, the trail opened mounds dotted the ground and we saw several tortoise onto a spectacular freshwater basin marsh covered with burrows. Flowering herbaceous plants included blazing waving splitbeard bluestem, purple bluestem, and star (Liatris spicata), coastalplain palafox (Palafoxia broomsedge bluestem (Andropogon ternarius, A. virginicus integrifolia), elephant’s foot (Elephantopsis carolinianus), var. glaucus, and A. virginicus var. virginicus, respectively), broomsedge bluestem (Andropogon virginicus), bracken with long islands of false fennel (Eupatorium leptophyllum) fern (Pteridium aquilinum), summer farewell (Dalea which resembles yankeeweed (E. compositifolium) but pinnata), scaleleaf aster (Symphyotrichum adnatum), white isn’t sticky. There had been an early summer burn but we top aster (Sericocarpus tortifolius), dogtongue wild found regenerating buttonbush (Cephalanthus buckwheat (Eriogonum tomentosum), bearded occidentalis) and purple false foxglove (Agalinis purpurea). skeletongrass (Gymnopogon ambiguus), and beautiful Tucked beneath were pale meadow beauty (Rhexia purple lovegrass (Eragrostis spectabilis). Along Forest mariana) and fireweed (Erechtites hieracifolius). Along the Road 5 (FR5) we found coastalplain honeycombhead marsh margin were diminutive Small’s bogbutton (Balduina angustifolia), thin paspalum (Paspalum (Lachnocaulon minus) and slender flattop goldenrod setaceum), delicate tall jointweed (Polygonella gracilis), (Euthamia caroliniana). and Plukenet’s flatsedge (Cyperus plukenetii). Centipede !We next drove east on Croom Road, parking at a grass (Eremochloa ophiuroides) and lanceleaf rattlebox Water Management District monitoring well. Open ground (Crotalaria lanceolata) are nuisance exotic species in this cover included sweet goldenrod (Solidago odora), butterfly area. milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), blackroot (Pterocaulon !Colleen described various fire regimes used to pycnostachyum) in flower, Baldwin’s flatsedge (Cyperus maintain the open savannah character. Over decades the croceus), and under the power line, a dense thicket of area has had many land use changes: turpentine harvest, lovely red-stemmed cottonweed (Froelichia floridana), a logging, and cattle ranching, but fortunately member of the amaranth family, interspersed has never been plowed so has intact soil with coastalplain palafox (Palafoxia structures and seed banks. All longleaf integrifolia). On the other side we found saplings originated from natural great puffy stands of Florida paintbrush regeneration. Colleen told of staff (Carphephorus corymbosus), fluffy white seasonally collecting flowering plant seeds clouds against the dark green leaves of for sale to promote diverse forest hammock snakeroot (Ageratina jucunda), ecosystems having more economic value and patches of wiregrass (Aristida stricta) than wood products alone. She interacted flowering in response to the late summer with prospective hunters scouting sites for burn. A reclining legume had everyone the upcoming season. She talked about the stumped, we settled on clutterspike false forest’s special wildlife including indigo (Amorpha herbacea) but Rob later red-cockaded woodpeckers, gopher confirmed it to be Carolina indigo (Indigofera tortoises, indigo snakes, pine snakes, caroliniana). Our next trip to the forest will short-tailed snakes, and an endemic be to paddle the river. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS – THEY HELP FUND OUR CHAPTER ACTIVITIES

Can you grow Rhexia from seed? This space available! You could win $100 worth of plants from Notestein’s Promote your business - Nursery if you are the first to propagate Rhexia, our be a Chapter sponsor! namesake, from seed. You Eight issues for only $100 will need to grow several flats of four inch pots in time for either our Spring or Fall Native Plant Sale to Contact Goldie at [email protected] qualify. Call Jim with questions - 352-372-2107.

To become a sponsor of the FNPS Paynes Prairie Chapter email your business card size ad in JPG or TIFF format to Goldie Schwartz at [email protected]. Ads appear in eight issues January-November (except for summer months) for $100 or monthly for $12.50. Florida Native Plant Society Paynes Prairie Chapter Post Office Box 1004 Archer, FL 32618

Paynes Prairie Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society

The Mission of the Florida Native Plant Society Please join us for these upcoming events! is to promote the preservation, conservation, (See more details on pages 1 and 2) and restoration of the native plants and native November Yard Tour plant communities of Florida. Home of Mark Elliott, Gainesville Saturday, November 18, 2017 The Society fulfills this mission through: November General Meeting • Support for conservation land acquisition; Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017 Niche evolution in the genus Liatris • Land management that enhances habitat Anthony Melton, PhD Candidate, UF suitability for native plants; Phillips Hall, Unitarian-Universalist Fellowship • Education; 4225 NW 34th Street, Gainesville, FL 32605 • Public policies that protect our native flora, especially rare species; Carl’s Garden Workday • Research on native plant species; and, Saturday, December 9, 9:00 a.m. • Encouragement of local landscaping practices and policies that preserve Florida's native plant heritage.