October 2019
A year ago those of us in the middle of the Florida Panhandle were waiting for Hurricane Michael. It was expected to be a Cat 1 or 2 but built up quickly and hit Mexico Beach as a Cat 5. Everything but the newest of homes built to latest code were gone; all vegetation blown away. Inland for miles thru the pineland savannas and hardwood forests the trees were snapped off or toppled over.
Marianna, closer to Georgia than the Gulf, was hit hard. You can see acres of planted pines lined up in rows and all broken off at 15-20 feet. In the ravines, the big hardwoods lay like pick-up-sticks. Supplies and debris from reconstruction piles up everywhere. Land gets cleared to accomodate and ends up as wasteland.
a bleak, unattractive, and unused or neglected urban or industrial area; an unused area of land that has become barren or overgrown.
Well guess what? Some native plants love barren and disturbed soil.
Sunday morning we walked thru some of this wasteland with Floyd, local resident and noted wildflower photographer who has learned where and when to look for the more uncommon plants. He also lost his home in the storm.
Dicerandra is a small annual in the Mint family with a pleasant smell if you rub a leaf or walk thru a big colony. Several species range across the Panhandle with small differences - colors and sizes vary, finding some with brown anthers instead of yellow was another differentiating point.
Liatris elegans was also a big bloomer. Some of the plants were straight narrow wands; the rest had been nibbled or broken off and branched profusely.
Agalinis aka False Foxglove, semi-parasitic — it’s everywhere this time of year.
Blue Curls — lousy photo but I didn’t want to leave it out as there was a lot starting to flower.
Spurred Butterfly Pea Centrosema — only a few of this summer peavine hanging on this late in the year.
So Liatris elegans is commonly known as Pinkscale with colors that vary from white to pink as you see here on these 3 that have branched multiple times.
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10 photos so far and that was only the first stop. From there we moved to roadsides. The next visit was short to see something spotted from a distance (shoot, DYCs) — and then on to a hot dusty sideroad off the state road. But it had white Dicerandra.
Greeneyes aka Berlandiera nearing the end of its flowering period. Note the dust...
There were butterflies around but nothing that I could get near except for this small Skipper on Chrysopsis.
and just to show off a lucky shot after trying repeatedly over the years is this Jointweed or Polygonum with the head-high stems that sway in the breeze, in and out of focus.
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At the last place on the state road (where a man in church clothes stopped to ask if we needed help. No sir, thanks, we’re only looking at wildflowers.) Roger’s Lobelia — tall, blue, and high enough above the grasses and weeds to stand out.
This is one messy flower begging for a bee to stop by...
and a white version, if I remember correctly, Lobelia brevifolia or Shortleaf Lobelia.
Another summer flower was across the ditch — one of the Meadow Beauties aka Rhexia.
and finally one of the sunflower composites — Helianthus I guess but I have not really looked at this genus much, sorta in that DYC category.
There was more of course — Lupinus so soft and green and getting ready to flower next spring; a native roadside grass that was twice as tall as Annie; more Asters, a couple Eupatorium species (Dog Fennel of course and a Thoroughwort); Blue Mistflower was doing good where it was not too dry. I also left out one of the Dicerandra but maybe you’ll see that photo in the comments where you can join us with your nature observations. Thanks for stopping by….
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