Newsletter of the Palm Beach County Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society

OctoberOctoberOctober

201120112011

The Florida Native Plant Society promotes the preservation of our native flora through education and conservation. To attract wildlife, promote water conservation and prevent the further introduction of non-native pest plants, the society encourages the cultivation of nurs-ery-propagated Florida native plants and promotes their use as ornamentals in public and private landscapes.

October Chapter Meeting

Tuesday, October 18

7:30 – 9:00 pm (doors open at 7)

Palm Beach County Extension—University of Florida/IFAS

Mounts Building Auditorium

531 North Military Trail, West Palm Beach, FL 33415

Saturday, October 22 9am—12pm

Clayton Hutcheson Building

Come help us tidy up our native display gar‐den. Bring your hat, gloves, water, and hand tools.

Contents

Free Admission • Refreshments • Native Plant Raffle Public Welcome • No Reservations Needed

Garden Maintenance Party

Florida Native Plant Society

Palm Beach

County Chapter

Pondering Epiphytes .... Page 2

Gardening w/ Natives .. Page 3

Upcoming Events.......... Page 4

Membership Update .... Page 4

Field Trip Report ........... Page 5

Meeting Notes .............. Page 6

Unsung Heroes ............. Page 6

Announcements ........... Page 7

Contact Information ..... Page 8

Native Plants and Other Wilds of the Big Cypress National Preserve

Steve Woodmansee, Pro Native Consulting

Join Steve on this folksy storytelling adventure of his journey conducting a three‐year floristic inventory of one of South Florida's most remarkable conservation areas. He'll share his many discoveries, plenty of photos of the plants and animals he encoun‐tered, as well as his fascinating if not hair raising tales of his escapades in the swamp.

Steve Woodmansee, a native of Miami, has spent much of his life ex‐ploring South Florida's Nature. He has worked as a botanist for more than 15 years including stints at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and The Institute for Regional Conservation (where he remains a research associate). Currently he owns Pro Native Consulting, and in addition to growing and selling unusual native plants, provides services to the En‐vironmental Consulting community, government agencies and Univer‐sities & Academic Institutions, and Conservation/Community based NGO's. He is an adjunct professor at Miami Dade College where he teaches courses at the Landscape Technology Department, Kendall Campus. He has long been involved with the Dade Chapter of the Flor‐ida Native Plant Society as well as the Florida Native Plant Society where he is currently serving as President. He has written or co‐written several dozen reports, journal articles, newsletter columns, and website‐based resources.

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Pondering Epiphytes by Ann Yeend Weinrich

What’s that stuff on the bark of my tree? It’s flaky and crusty and looks ugly. How can I get rid of it? Do you have trees or large shrubs with dry, flaky things on the bark? Are there gray‐ish pointy things growing in your trees? Shouldn’t you get

those out of there? They might hurt the tree! They sure don’t look like plants! Maybe we should have them sprayed. It almost sounds as if we need to call the nearest Plant Dermatologist! This subject would never come up among our knowledgeable Native Plant Society members, but we might have neighbors or friends who could ask these questions. Do we know how to answer them? Can we explain to people what epiphytes are? Epiphyte: A plant, fungi, or microbe that grows on a tree or shrub but does not get its nutrients from the host plant, but from its surroundings. Epiphytes get their nutrients from the air, from rainwater filtering down through detritus in the forest above, and by the decomposition of detri‐tus – old leaves, dead insects, etc. – that accumu‐lates in the plant they live on, or by being caught in the surfaces of the epiphyte itself. It’s common to see leaves and twigs caught in an air plant. And the structure of a shrubby lichen is perfectly configured to collect all sorts of tiny bits of natu‐ral things that might come floating down – a bee‐tle shell, a bird dropping, small sticks from a neighboring tree – all destined to decompose and provide nutrients to the epiphyte. Epiphytes come in a variety of life forms – bro‐meliads, such as cardinal wild pine or Spanish

moss (both air plants), resurrection fern, butter‐fly orchids, or an array of multi‐colored lichens – shrubby (like old man’s beard lichen), flaky, or crusty (like the red Baton Rouge lichen). This last one looks as though someone went through the forest dabbing beautiful red splotches of paint on the tree trunks. So epiphytes don’t hurt or take anything from the plant they are growing on. The only way they could actually damage the “host plant” is if they grew so large – like some huge air plants do – that the branches could get over‐loaded from the weight and break off. And it hap‐pens occasionally that a strangler fig, starting out life as a seed caught in the branches or fronds of a tree, could grow so large that it could shade out, and take over the host tree. Speaking of starting out life as a seed – many of the seeds of epiphytes are wind‐blown – little seeds encased in fluffy, hair‐like wisps that waft through the air. So how does all this fit into an ecosystem or into your garden landscape? And how can you explain it to your neighbors? Many lichens won’t grow where the air is polluted, so you should be glad if they show up in your yard – your air is clean. Many bromeliads provide perfect nesting places for a myriad of wildlife – from tiny spiders on the small ones to great horned owls and red‐shouldered hawks on the largest ones in the wild. We probably won’t get those birds in our yards, but many bromeliads provide nest sites and hid‐ing places for smaller creatures – from lizards to mourning doves. Epiphytes add to the diversity of swamps and forests, provide shelter, homes, and food for many kinds of wildlife. They also add to the diversity of our neighborhood landscape, enlarging and enriching the tiny ecosystem that is our yard.

Ann Yeend Weinrich trilliumwoods@earthlink.net

My blog is at: www.annsbirdventures.wordpress.com

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Let’s switch gears for a moment away from colorful flowering plants and take a moment to appreciate the beauty of form and structure in our gardens. No plant speaks more loudly here in South Florida than the palm. There are a dozen native palm species here in Florida to choose from. One of the most common and yet arguably the most important is one of our palms know as Saw Palmetto. The stiff green leaves are fan shaped with numerous small shaped teeth on the stems. The trunks can either be erect or arching and running along the ground. They flower in the spring and produce colorful edible fruit in the fall. A wide range of wildlife use saw palmetto as a go to source for food. Our pre‐Columbian an‐cestors, as well as the near modern day Indian tribes here in South Florida, also relied on the berries as a major food resource. Saw palmetto can be found in a wide range of habitats, so it follows that it is not very picky about soil conditions. In fact all our native palms are so well adapted to the local soil conditions that they seldom, if ever, require any fertilization or pesticide. Saw palmetto is very tolerant of cold, drought, and salt.

Plant saw palmetto in full sun for optimal results. The plant can be slow growing but if given conditions of rich soil and regular irrigation it can outgrow its loca‐tion very quickly. Saw palmetto looks best when planted in groups of three staggered approximately three feet apart. There is a natural form here on the east coast of Florida that has silvery blue leaves. Just south of the Yamato road exit in the northbound

lane of I‐95 you can see a huge cluster of this beautiful form growing in the sand off to the right just beyond the fence in what once was an ancient dune and is now the protected Yamato Pinescrub area. Every time I go by that location I can’t help to look! This plant is available at native nurseries. Visit the Association of Florida Native Nurseries at www.afnn.org, but don’t stop there. The site provides only a snapshot of the offerings at local nurseries, so call around.

Jeff Nurge www.FloridaNativeGardening.com

Gardening with the Natives by Jeff Nurge

Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens)

If you love Florida's native plants, you're going to love what's al‐ready offered at the FNPS online shop, and it's only going to get better. Go to http://www.thefnpsshop.com/ and take a leisurely stroll through our little shop and discover all the goodies that FNPS has gathered for your enjoyment (and purchase, too). The site has everything from hats to tees to wonderful works of origi‐nal art. And, of course, you don't have to be a Florida native plant lover to love what you see, just a friend to nature and lover of beauty.

Visit the FNPS Online Shop

In addition to cool native plant merchandise, you can shop for beautiful original art like this watercolor by our very own Cathy Beals!

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Contributions Wanted

Your suggestions for con‐

tent are welcomed.

We are always interested in

original native plant articles,

essays, field reports, photos,

event announcements, or

other content suggestions.

If you would like to contrib‐

ute to our chapter newslet‐

ter, please email LeRoy and

Shari Rodgers at

dahooned@gmail.com

Membership at a Glance

Business 6 Contributing 9 Donor 1 Family 31 Individual 111 Library 1 Life 2 Not for profit 4 Student 4 Supporting 4 Total 173

Monthly Garden Maintenance

Saturday, October 22 Clayton Hutchinson Building, UF/IFAS Extension

9:00 am – 12:00 pm Get Your Hands Dirty!

Come and learn from experts as you help us maintain our Native Plant Demonstra‐tion Garden. It’s a great opportunity to ask questions, identify plants, and take home cuttings for your garden. Drop by anytime between 9:00 am and noon to learn, so‐cialize, and enjoy brunch in the open air. Don’t forget to bring your garden tools if you have them! More info: 561‐247‐FNPS (3677).

Green EXPO

Saturday, October 15 Palm Beach State College

10:00am – 4:00pm 4th Annual Green EXPO

Includes free seminars, green living workshops, and loads of green product exhibi‐tors. Visit www.greenexpo‐fl.com or call 561‐868‐3702 Lantana Greenfest

Saturday, October 22 Lantana Town Hall

10:00am – 2:00pm Town of Lantana Greenfest (see announcement on page 7)

November Chapter Meeting

Tuesday, November 15 Mounts Building, UF/IFAS Extension

7:30 – 9:00pm Invasive Exotic Pythons

Skip Snow, Biologist, Everglades National Park, will give us an update on the status of pythons in South Florida. More info: 561‐247‐FNPS (3677). Holiday Potluck Dinner

Tuesday, December 20 Mounts Building, UF/IFAS Extension

7:30 – 9:00pm

Our annual FNPS Holiday Party is a great time to socialize and meet current members and guests. This is a potluck dinner so feel free to bring whatever you wish.

Upcoming Events

Our chapter has 173 members as of September 30th, 2011. We have three new members this month. Warm welcomes to LAURIE ALBRECHT, ANTHONY DEDE, and CLAUDIA WITTERS. Eight memberships renewed or rejoined in September. Renewing or rejoining individual members are MARCI GREEN, JACQUELINE KADISH, JOHN KOCH, PETER NEBE, CLINT OSTER, and LINDA MCCANDLESS. Our renewing family members are LORI & ALEX FINKEL and MATTHEW & JENNILEE MIERZWA.

Thank you all for your continued support of FNPS!

Membership Update

Page 5

It was a gorgeous day for a field trip to Kissimmee

Prairie Preserve State Park. The drive through the

open prairie north of Okeechobee was peaceful and

yielded sightings of many crested caracaras (it

seemed like they were on every fence post) and sev‐

eral bald eagles, which was quite a treat. As we drove

into the park we saw Liatris just begin‐

ning to open and show‐stopping

Catesby's lilies scattered throughout the

grasses. Most of the grasses were

blooming, and the prairie rippled in the

wind.

The group totaled 24 people including

members of Palm Beach Native Plant So‐

ciety, students of Dr. Rogers, and other

interested parties. We were met by Paul

Miller the Park Biologist who introduced

us to the prairie and the vista of about 3 miles to the

horizon. His main goal is to continue burns to keep

out the trees so that the historical prairie is main‐

tained.

Then our group leader, Dr. Rogers, took over. We

walked past the parking lot to the Hammock Trail,

identifying grasses and other wildflowers on the way.

We learned about ligules, beaks, chicken feet and

other ways to identify things that look like a grass!

Botany filled the air! Our group even located a plant

that excited Dr. Rogers, as he did not

have a photo of it.

Not only did we look at grasses. There

were many Hypericum species in bloom,

also meadow beauty, ageratum, Black‐

eyed Susans, and much more.

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park is

located north of the city of Okeechobee

and is easy to reach. They have a very

nice campground and modern facilities. It

is well worth a day trip if you have not

seen Florida's vast prairie as it was. For information

go to http://www.floridastateparks.org/

kissimmeeprairie/aboutthepark.cfm

Field Trip Notes by Lynn Sweetay

Photo by Lynn Sweetay

Our chapter was recently contacted by the Snook Is‐

lands Project designer, Dave Niemi, who is responsi‐

ble for landscaping the public use area just north of

the Lake Worth bridge. If you recall, Alyssa Dodd pre‐

viously gave us a presentation about this project.

Landscaping the public use area (basically the area

along the boardwalk leading to the islands) is not in‐

cluded in the design nor is it funded. Dave is seeking

our assistance. With our existing commitment to

complete a butterfly garden at John MacArthur State

Park, the best way for us to help is through direct do‐

nations of plants from our members and possibly as‐

sistance with the design.

The specifics—Plant installation is planned for the

second half of December or first part of January. The

site has a "partial shade" canopy on the northern‐

exposure down slope from the Lake Worth Bridge.

Dave is working with City of Lake Worth staff to find

mulch, additional trees, and to handle irriga‐

tion. When it is time to plant, Lake Worth residents

will be participating alongside of our members. The

types of plants requested are understory or ground‐

cover stock.

I am compiling an inventory, which will be the starting

point of a landscaping plan. If you have native plants

you would like to donate that would be suitable for

this site, please send the plant name (scientific pre‐

ferred), quantity, and the size (1 gal, 5 gal, etc) to

palmbeach@fnpschapters.org by November 5th. If

you have specific questions about the project, the

site, etc, please contact Dave directly. He can be

reached at agrassroot@comcast.net

Opportunity to Assist Snook Islands Project submitted by Brenda Mills

Page 6

Monthly Meeting Notes Submitted by Cathy Beals

At the Sept. 20 evening meeting (after the election of officers), Dr. George Rogers gave us detailed informa‐tion on grasses and sedges and he announced the up‐coming field trip to the Kissimmee Prairie State Park for a first‐hand view of these diverse plants in their natural environment. There were approximately 50 people attending the regular meeting. BIG THANKS to all our generous volunteers: Nan Owens and Nancy Smoak provided refreshments for the evening meeting. Volunteers who donated plants: Michael Manna, Scott Massey, Lynn Sweetay, Susan Lerner, Judy Trammell, Cindy Bush, Sue Dingwell and Cathy Beals (we had loads of plants this time!)

Donated plants: blue curls, rouge plant, climbing as‐ter, gumbo limbo tree, scorpion tail, coral honey‐suckle, beautyberry, partridge pea, firebush, a number of grasses and ferns, red maple and a cabbage palm Garden Maintenance volunteers on Saturday morning, Sept. 24 were: Michael Manna, Steve Chase and Sue Dingwell. Nan Owens provided refreshments. Thanks to Myrna Sossner and Nancy Sloane for their monthly efforts to prepare and mail the newsletter And THANKS to LeRoy & Shari Rodgers for newsletter preparation. And Matthew King for arranging elec‐tronic distribution of The Dahoon. Great Progress :) Cathy

The Unsung Pollinators by Carl Terwilliger

Without our native pollinators, we would not find to‐matoes, citrus, melons, mango and many other foods so easily and cheaply available in our stores. Honeybees are native to India and are dying out due to several diseases that have recently followed them here. Killer bees will soon arrive and end backyard beekeeping. Fortunately there are other, even more efficient, native pollinators. You may already know about hummingbirds, butter‐flies, bumble and carpenter bees and even bats as pol‐linators. The less commonly known include: lady bee‐tles, thrips, wasps, flower flies, sap beetles, moths, some songbirds, solitary bees and the lowly opossum. It’s fun to attract our local pollinators and it is kid friendly too. Solitary bees won’t sting unless handled and some don’t have a stinger at all. Colony forming bees like honey bees, bumble bees and paper wasps will sting to protect the queen so don’t disturb the nest. Honeybees leave the stinger in you and die soon after. This is why they rarely sting if bothered while visiting flowers....they just move on. To help various pollinators nest in your yard try the following: Turn a six‐inch or larger clay flowerpot up‐side down under a bush for bumble bees to nest in.

Leave some small areas of bare ground. The three‐eighths inch bright green halictid bee will dig a tiny volcano‐like hole in the ground here. Drill quarter‐inch or more diameter holes, two inches deep into posts or blocks of wood for the black mason bee to nest in. Also, hang horizontally a bundle of paper straws with a plastic roof for this bee. Rotted tree stumps, old dry stalks, muddy soil, dead wood, wildflowers and reduced or no insecticide use are ways to build up a nice population of pollinators. Get rid of some grass and restore your yard with na‐tives. You will find that your fruit trees yield better and that the shrubs, which you have planted to provide berries for your songbirds, will fruit abundantly. I have found that kids love watching the swarms of pollinators that are attracted to the blood berry bush, Cordia globosa. This native likes dry soil and has small nonpoisonous berries that the birds like too.

Photo by LeRoy Rodgers

Page 7

Electronic Newsletter We’re still on a campaign to transition the Dahoon from paper to digital. So far, over 20% of our membership has transitioned to elec‐tronic distribution (thank you). But that’s not enough, basically, if you have an email address, we want you to sign up. We understand that not everyone is on the “information superhighway” and we’ll continue to mail out the paper copy for those that want it. So if you want to receive The Dahoon via email, please send an email to info@fnps.org. FNPS Annual Report The FNPS Annual Report is ready for download from the FNPS website homepage http://www.fnps.org/ Call for Research Track Papers and Poster Presenta‐tions The Florida Native Plant Society annual conference will be held at the John R. Trinkle Center, Hillsborough Community College Plant City Campus, Plant City, Flor‐ida May 17‐20, 2012. Researchers are invited to submit abstracts on research related to native plants and plant communities of Florida including preservation, conser‐vation, and restoration. Abstracts of not more than 200 words should be submitted as a MS Word file by email to Paul A. Schmalzer paul.a.schmalzer@nasa.gov by February 1, 2011. Include title, affiliation, and address. Indicate whether you will be presenting a paper or poster. FNPS 2012 Endowment Grant Research Awards and Conservation Grant Awards The Florida Native Plant Society maintains an Endow‐ment Research Grant program for the purpose of fund‐ing research on native plants. These are small grants ($1500 or less), awarded for a 1‐year period, and in‐tended to support research that forwards the mission of the Florida Native Plant Society which is "to promote the preservation, conservation, and restoration of the native plants and native plant communities of Florida." FNPS Conservation Grants support applied native plant conservation projects in Florida. These are small grants ($1500 or less) awarded for a 1‐year period. Examples

of projects that this grant supports are on‐the‐ground native plant community restoration, land acquisition, and habitat enhancement. To qualify for a Conserva‐tion Grant, the proposed project must be sponsored by an FNPS Chapter. Application guidelines and details are on the FNPS Web site (www.fnps.org), click on ‘Awards and Grants’. Questions regarding the grant programs should be sent to info@fnps.org. Application deadline for the 2012 Awards is March 2, 2012. Awards will be announced at the May 2012 An‐nual Conference in Plant City. Awardees do not have to be present at the Conference to receive award. Just One Back Yard John Zahina‐Ramos has launched a new website dedi‐cated to backyard vegetable gardening and ecologically‐based alternatives to lawn. It contains a wide array of columns dedicated to my research in sustainable urban agriculture with a focus on backyard production, gar‐dening, cooking, art and good reads when you need to take a break from the mundane. www.justonebackyard.com October is celebrate Greenways and trails month. Find comprehensive information about Florida's hiking, biking, paddling and equestrian trails right at VISIT FLORIDA's new trails website. It's easy to plan your vacation with our trail information and maps that will help you find hotels, campgrounds and restaurants near trails. Plan your trip with a few simple clicks, giving you more time to enjoy your outdoor adventures. http://www.visitflorida.com/trails/ Greenfest, October 22 Come join the fun at Lantana's 4th Annual Green‐fest. Members of the Palm Beach Chapter will be reaching out to residents and helping them learn more about the benefits of native plants for the fourth year in a row. In addition, Rob Hopper will be lending his expertise by presenting to participants. Come on by and learn more about living green.

Announcements

palmbeach@

fnpschapters.org

Florida Native Plant Society

Palm Beach County

Chapter

Visit us on the web palmbeach.fnpschapters.org

Or come Tweet with us….

twitter.com/palmbeachfnps

The Dahoon is published monthly except December by the Palm Beach County Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Soci-ety. Newsletter subscrip-tion is included in mem-bership fees paid to the FNPS.

Florida Native Plant Society Palm Beach County Chapter 534 29th Street West Palm Beach, FL 33407

President—Brenda Mills 247‐3677, bmills@sfwmd.gov

Vice‐President—Lindy Cerar 312‐0660, lindycerar@yahoo.com

Treasurer—Stephanie Duncan 575‐7956, duncan694@aol.com

Secretary—Cathy Beals 799‐4007, bealsc@bellsouth.net

Chapter Representative—Lynn Sweetay 798‐6208, lynnsweetay@hotmail.com

Conservation Chair—Michael Manna

Director at Large—Alyssa Dodd

Director at Large—Kristi Martin Moyer

Director at Large—Ryan Leavengood

Education Chair—Lindy Cerar 312‐0660, lindycerar@yahoo.com

Membership Chair—Dennis de Zeeuw 954‐560‐4771, dennis@sustain‐scape.com

Newsletter Publishers—Myrna Sossner & Nancy Sloane 832‐2547, mandn29@aol.com

Officers & Chairpersons

Promoting the preservation, conservation, and restoration

of the native plants and native plant communities of Florida

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Newsletter of the Palm Beach County Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society

Newsletter Editors—LeRoy & Shari Rodgers 741‐3395, dahooned@gmail.com

Publicity Chair—Jeff Nurge 278‐3299, jeffrem@bellsouth.net

PALM BEACH COUNTY CHAPTER FLORIDA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY

MEETS

3rd Tuesday of the month 7:30 P.M.

(doors open at 7:00)

Mounts Building Auditorium University of Florida/IFAS Extension

531 North Military Trail (1/4 mi north of Southern Blvd.)

West Palm Beach, Florida

Meetings are free and open to the public.

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPER

Membership Renewal «Renewal»