©2014 Deb Hanson, CREW Land & Water Trust
Spring has in full-swing in southwest Florida - the swallow-tailed kites are back, the cypress trees are leafing out, and every day new spring wildflowers are popping up along the roadsides and trails. It only takes a glance out your car window to see a splash of yellow or purple petals announcing spring.
April and May mark the peak of spring wildflower season at CREW. On any given day over 50 different species of wildflowers can be found along the CREW Marsh or CREW Cypress Dome Trails off Corkscrew Road. Don’t expect big showy flowers or vast fields of brilliance, though. Looking for wildflowers here is kind of like going on an Easter-egg hunt - lots of green with spots of color here and there.
To an observant eye, though, the rewards are plenty. From the cute yellow bachelor’s buttons that greet you on arrival to the bright, showy grass pink orchids popping up along the marsh’s edge, every twist and turn along the trail reveals a new floral delight! Since most flowers bloom for a very short time period, the color scheme and variety of flowers changes fast.
Walk through the high, dry pine flatwoods and you’ll see the subtle purple penny royal. Get down close to it, rub the leaves between your fingers, and you’ll be rewarded with a sweet minty fragrance. Nearby the shiny blueberry’s dainty white and pink flowers hang from low-growing stems beside the taller four-petaled St. Peter’s wort (from the St. John’s wort family). If you hike the trails between 10 AM and 3 PM, you’ll see the delicate blush of the Roserush, which only blooms mid-day. And you can’t miss the tall pink thistle, which attract butterflies, beetles, and many other kinds of insects to its flower.
Further along the trail in moister soils, look for Southern dewberry (south Florida’s version of the blackberry) with its bright white flowers, tiny white or purple violets, blue-eyed grass, and the tall yellow butterweed or the daisy-like sneezeweed. In these same moist soils grows the beautiful lavender-colored butterwort – an insectivorous plant with sticky leaves. In wet spots along the marsh edge grass pink orchids, water pimpernel, duck potato, marsh pinks and lemon bacopa will all delight your senses. So, come take a stroll at CREW and see how many of these beautiful flowers you can find. No need to know them all by name, just look, smell and enjoy the beauty on a warm spring day.
Spring has in full-swing in southwest Florida - the swallow-tailed kites are back, the cypress trees are leafing out, and every day new spring wildflowers are popping up along the roadsides and trails. It only takes a glance out your car window to see a splash of yellow or purple petals announcing spring.
April and May mark the peak of spring wildflower season at CREW. On any given day over 50 different species of wildflowers can be found along the CREW Marsh or CREW Cypress Dome Trails off Corkscrew Road. Don’t expect big showy flowers or vast fields of brilliance, though. Looking for wildflowers here is kind of like going on an Easter-egg hunt - lots of green with spots of color here and there.
To an observant eye, though, the rewards are plenty. From the cute yellow bachelor’s buttons that greet you on arrival to the bright, showy grass pink orchids popping up along the marsh’s edge, every twist and turn along the trail reveals a new floral delight! Since most flowers bloom for a very short time period, the color scheme and variety of flowers changes fast.
Walk through the high, dry pine flatwoods and you’ll see the subtle purple penny royal. Get down close to it, rub the leaves between your fingers, and you’ll be rewarded with a sweet minty fragrance. Nearby the shiny blueberry’s dainty white and pink flowers hang from low-growing stems beside the taller four-petaled St. Peter’s wort (from the St. John’s wort family). If you hike the trails between 10 AM and 3 PM, you’ll see the delicate blush of the Roserush, which only blooms mid-day. And you can’t miss the tall pink thistle, which attract butterflies, beetles, and many other kinds of insects to its flower.
Further along the trail in moister soils, look for Southern dewberry (south Florida’s version of the blackberry) with its bright white flowers, tiny white or purple violets, blue-eyed grass, and the tall yellow butterweed or the daisy-like sneezeweed. In these same moist soils grows the beautiful lavender-colored butterwort – an insectivorous plant with sticky leaves. In wet spots along the marsh edge grass pink orchids, water pimpernel, duck potato, marsh pinks and lemon bacopa will all delight your senses. So, come take a stroll at CREW and see how many of these beautiful flowers you can find. No need to know them all by name, just look, smell and enjoy the beauty on a warm spring day.