Virginia Salt Marsh Mallow (Kosteletzkya virginica)

I shot this salt marsh mallow about 2 miles in on the North Shore of Lake Apopka Restoration area.  Below you can see the marshy area where it was growing.

The Virginia Salt Marsh Mallow is a many-flowered plant producing large, slightly drooping pink flowers that resemble common garden hibiscus blooms.  Despite "Salt Marsh" in its common name, this tall, muti-branched plant also grows in freshwater marshes throughout Florida, as you can see in the picture above.  It thrives in wet conditions in the wild, but it is easily grown and makes a showy addition to the home garden.  The only downside is that each blossom lasts but a single day.  Several clutivated varieties are available for purchase.

Wild Bush Bean (Macroptilium lathyroides)

I found this plant in the Apopka restoration area, also.  I thought it was unusal and with a little help from my friends on our open native florida gardening group on FB, was able to put a name to it! It is a wild bush bean!  Not native to Florida, but still very interesting!  Plus, this is one of the best pictures I have taken with my little ole'cannon point and shoot!

The pea-shaped flowers bloom in pairs and have a spirally twisted keel petal.  The seed pods are hairy, slender, and up to 4 inches long.  When mature, the pods explosively open to eject the small, pitted, brown or marbled brown and black beans.  The leaves have 3 narrowly oval to lanceolate leaflets and lanceolate stipules.  The stems are slender, green, and erect, trailing, or twining.  Wild bushbean grows along roadsides, in pastures, and in other sunny, open, disturbed area.

Fragrant Water Lily

Today, I rode my bike 7 miles through the Apopka restoration area on the N side of  Lake Apopka.   I stopped at the first bridge that goes over a canal of the project, looked over and took this picture of

 this Fragrant Water Lily.........................

Water lilies have floating leaves. There are about 40 species of water lily in the world, plus numerous hybrids and varieties. Some water lily species prefer southerly warmth and are found in temperate and semi-tropical zones, some prefer the cold and are found only in northern Canada and Alaska.
This species, fragrant water lily (Nymphaea odorata), occurs from Puerto Rico to Alaska and from California to Quebec (Kartesz 1999). Its many subspecies and varieties may be found floating in ponds, lakes and sluggish streams just about everywhere in North America.
Water lily leaves  are nearly circular in shape, as you can see in this picture. They are notched to the center. Its leaf lobes are pointed. The leaves arise on stalks from long rhizomes in the mud. Fragrant water lily flowers are showy white and aromatic. Flowers of unusual color and shape are characteristic of hybrid water lilies.

Common Buttonbush

I explored about a mile of the Apopka Restoration area outside of Zellwood down 48 A today (July 27th) and found this wildflower, which I now know is a Common Buttonbush!  Thanks to my followers for the help!  It has large, fragrant, ball-shaped blooms and a slender long flower part which protrudes from each tiny white flower, giving an overall pincushion-like appearance to the entire round head.  It is highly ornamental, fast growing and adapts well to moist soils.  American Indians used it to treat dysentery and rheumatism.  It is a native perennial of Florida and its habitat is wet sites, marshes, swamp margins, and pond edges.

Spatterdock, Cow Lily

Spatterdock is a large plant whose leaves are often floating, however, submersed and emersed leaves are common.  Spatterdock commonly occurs in ponds, lakes and sluggish streams and blooms from spring to summer.  Spatterdock has large heart-shaped leaves, usually with wavy margins.  Spatterdock floating leaves are attached to long, stout stems which arise from large, spongy rhizomes.  Its submersed leaves are very thin, attached at the bottom rhizomes.  Spatterdock flowers are yellow and 'half-opened" at or above the water surface. 

This picture was taken while kayaking on the Weikwa River.

Pikerelweed

When I was hiking down this path, which is the Blue Trail in Wekiwa, I came across this little swampy stream.

 It was filled with Pickerelweed, which is an aquatic herb with a creeping, submerged rhizome and violet-blue flower spikes extending above water.  It flowers between June and November and is found in freshwater marshes and edges of ponds, lakes, and strams, such as the one in the picture.  The seeds can be eaten like nuts and the young leaves cooked as greens.  Deer also feed on these plants.  It also attracts butterflies.

Lanceleaf Tickseed,(Aster family) Coreopsis crassifolia

Lance-leaf tickseed grows in small clumps but forms extensive colonies.  It s 1-2 1/2 feet tall and has leaves 3-4 inches long, opposite, sometimes alternate near the top where the leaves are fewer.  some of the leaves are deeply cut, almost forming 3 leaflets.  flower heads are yellow, 1-1 1/2 inches across.  The yellow center or disk flowers stand out distinctly from the ray flowers, which appear to be attached just below them.  Ray flowers are 4-lobed.  the yellow, daisy-like flowers occur singly atop long, naked peduncles.  This native species has branching stems at base and often forms sizable colonies along roadsides and in old fields.

 I took these pictures next to Sand Lake on the northwest side of Wekiwa State Park.

MIMOSA NUTTALLII, SCHRANKIA UNCINATA also know as Sensitive Briar, Bashful Briar and Cat's Claw

Mimosa nuttallii, Schrankia uncinata, is also known as Sensitive Briar, Nuttall's Sensitive Briar, Nuttall's Sensitive-briar, and Bashful Briar due to its sensitive leaflets which fold when touched and and aptly named Devil's Shoestrings and Cat's claw because of its abundantly barbed stems.  the ball-shaped magenta-pink flower heads of Sensitive briar resemble miniature firework explosions and bloom on sprawling or trailing 4 feet long stems.  Sensitve Briar will grow best in dry to average soil and full sun on a bank , hanging over a wall, or naturalized in a prairie meadow.  It occurs naturally on glades, prairies, savannas, and roadsides.

I shot this picture on the Orange Trail in Wekiwa River Basin.

Purple Passionflower

The purple Passion flower is a climbing trailing vine.  It flowers from June -September.  This unusual plant is widely distributed in the south, especially from Florida to Texas.  Its fruit is sometime called maypop.  Its name relates to the resemblance of the flower parts to aspects of the Crucificion story:  the ten petal like parts represent the disciples, excluding Peter and Judas; the 5 stamens, the wounds Jesus received; the knob-like stigmas, the nails; and the fringed corona, the crown of thorns.

This picture was taken down the retreat road in Wekiwa  Park.

Bull Thistle

Bull thistle is a very prickly plant with a spiny-winged stem and large, rose-purple, rayless flower heads surrounded by spiny, yellow-tipped bracts.  It flowers between June-September and can be found throughout North America, except the far North. 

While in northeast Florida, walking down the historical old brick section  of A1A....I came acrossa sandy field covered in Bull Thistle....and to add to the beauty, there were hundreds of butterflys....one of the most beautiful sites I have seen

Arrowhead;Wapato

I spotted this tall stalk rsing from the waters of Lake county in the well hidden Boulay Preserve area.  It bears white flowers in whorls of 3.  It is closely related to Water Plantain,  Edible tubers can be found beneath the muck and Native Americans are said to have opened muskrat houses to get at their cache of tubers!

American Beauty Berry

 

 

The American beautyberry has colorful berries that last long into winter and are eaten by a variety of wildlife. Beautyberry has proven to be an attractive plant for wildlife within its native range.
Birds - including robins, catbirds, cardinals, mockingbirds, brown thrashers, finches and towhees - are favorite consumers of both the fresh berries and shriveled raisins. The fruit is heavily used by white-tailed deer and will be eaten well into late November.

Prickly Pear

I found this Prickly Pear off the trail in Wekiwa State Park in Apopka in the middle of a restoration area.  It is a clump forming cactus bearing few yellow flowers, often with reddish centers.  It blooms from May-August in sandy areas and open, rocky sites.  This is a native plant, the only cactus widespread in the eastern United States.

Hibiscus; Rose Mallow

The rose mallow is a large plant with big, showy, crimson flowers....I find it often on the trails I hike from June to September...particularly in swamps and freshwater and brackish marshes.  It is sometimes cultivated and used in many yards in Florida.  It is certainly one of the loveliest of our native flowers!