There Were No Fences

  Hurricane Idalia just passed us this morning and left our landscape intact.  Not the same for areas near Cedar Key and the Big Bend area of Florida which were hammered by 100+ mph winds and devastating high tides.  Large swaths of Florida were recently submerged in saltwater and likely will remain so for at least several days.  As most plants are not at all adapted to saltwater inundation, a great many landscape plants and vegetation in natural areas will perish.   News reports often refer to such events as catastrophic ones, yet it is these very events that determine the ecology of an area. Wildfires, severe freezes, avalanches, and hurricanes are vital to the nature of plant communities everywhere.  They may be uncommon, but that doesn't diminish their importance.  They are so-called "keystone" events.  What we take as "normal" plant communities are their result. Florida is a unique example - at least for North America.  We are shape...

Cordia sebestina   A few days ago, I saw a wonderful photo of a sulfur butterfly nectaring on the flowers of a geiger tree on a social media site that I am a member of.  The ensuing comments were expected.  Everyone wanted this plant....... but did they really?  I also saw a post from a different member asking for input on her butterfly garden plan; one that she obviously had paid someone to design.  These two separate posts have at least one thing in common - the folks wanting to have landscapes beneficial to wildlife did not take enough time to learn plants they were wanting to add. I can write this. In my first days of embracing the native plant movement, I quickly thought that I knew what I was talking about and the reality was that I knew almost nothing.  What I knew came largely from listening to others and from browsing through a few books.  I had almost no firsthand experience.  In a way, I was saved by the fact that there was no such thin...

Skippers on Camphorweed ( Pluchea spp.) Photo by Trudy Kenderdine & used by permission I love working with kids and since I've assumed the role of Director at the University of South Florida Botanical Gardens I often have the opportunity to take kids of all ages on guided walks.  One of first stops is always at the "Butterfly Garden".  I call it that, because it came with that sign when I first started there last year,  so it must be so... In truth, it was a terrible butterfly garden until we started to fix it - and that leads me back to the kids and guided walks. I enjoy asking questions that require critical thinking; often questions that I don't expect anyone to correctly answer.  It's golden when someone does, but that's never the point.  I ask questions that I hope will stimulate thinking.  In this case, and most others, that means questions meant to stimulate thinking about the natural world and why things are the way they are.  At the entran...