Desert flowers

The last two posts have focused on desert ferns, but it's only fair to share some photos of the incredible flowers we saw too. Thanks to above average rainfall this spring, the desert was truly in bloom, and we caught the end of a major flowering of cacti and desert annuals. Here is a small sampling of what we saw.

First, an assortment of cacti:

Next, a classic feature of the Sonoran and other southern deserts, Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens): 

A beautiful Yucca and a few other flowers:

Phoradendron californicum, a mistletoe

Member of Malvaceae, the cotton family

Palafoxia sp., member of the sunflower family, Asteraceae

Funastrum cynanchoides, a vining milkweed

Epipactis gigantea, an orchid!

Proteaceae at Kirstenbosch

I'm back from my trip to South Africa, and while the purpose of our trip was to search for ferns, no visit to this region would be complete without expressing proper appreciation for the incredible members of Proteaceae that define much of the flora of the area. This flowering plant family occurs primarily in the southern hemisphere, with the greatest diversity in South Africa and also Australia. Here's an assortment of photos of these plants, all from Kirstenbosch...

Pine Rocklands project and field work

A few weeks ago I went on the first field trip for a new project I'm involved in with a colleague here at UF, Ben Baiser, looking at phylogenetic relationships of plants in a unique, endangered habitat in South Florida. The pine rocklands is a highly fragmented habitat that is only found on the Miami Rock Ridge, the area in and around Miami and its surrounding metro area. The pine rocklands exist in patchy fragments throughout this area, and in one large patch in the Everglades. Our project is focused on understanding food web dynamics within and between separate pine rockland fragments, and the first step is to identify and DNA barcode all of the plant species.

While we intend to collect all 500+ species found in the pine rocklands, my main interest is of course the ferns. Here are photos of the fern species we've found there so far, with more still to come!

Anemia adiantifolia

Anemia adiantifolia

Anemia adiantifolia

Vittaria lineata 

Pteris bahamensis

Pteris vittata

Psilotum nudum, the first time I've seen it in the wild!

Pleopeltis polypodioides 

A tree-load of epiphytic ferns and bromeliads 

Florida blue and orange! Asclepias and Sisyrinchium.

Splinter Hill Bog: Drosera spp.

A cluster of Drosera capillaris, the pink sundew.

In addition to several species of pitcher plants, we also saw two species of Drosera, commonly called sundews, on our visit to Splinter Hill Bog. Drosera has always been one of my favorite plant genera; there is something really lovely about their little pads that always seem to be glistening with dew (though of course, it's not dew... it's insect-trapping glue). The two species we saw are both new to me, though one closely resembles the northern species I'm most familiar with, Drosera rotundifolia.

Drosera capillaris

Drosera capillaris

Drosera capillaris in flower

Drosera tracyi, the Gulf coast sundew

Drosera tracyi trying its best to look like a fern

Splinter Hill Bog: Sarracenia psittacina

The last of the pitcher plant species we encountered at Splinter Hill Bog was Sarracenia psittacina, the parrot pitcher plant, so named because of the shape of its pitchers. This species is much shorter than the others, and tends to have its pitchers appressed to the ground, rather than upright. It's easy to miss as it's much smaller, too. This one was not yet in flower when we visited.

Sarracenia psittacina and Lycopodiella inundata

Downward-facing hairs, characteristic of many carnivorous plants.

There are little translucent windows in the ends of the hoods to confuse light-seeking insects who will try to exit that way.