Recent Happenings

We gathered at Leon Sinks Geological Area with Billy Bailey to get our introduction to foraging edible and medicinal plants. After giving us an overview on safety in identification and preparation of plants, the health benefits of eating foraged plants, and a quick sample of what is available this time of year, we went on a slow hike. Slow, because every five feet, Billy was pointing out another plant that was edible or useful to our wellbeing. Everyone felt safe and informed, and thoroughly enjoyed our time with Bill Bailey.

Photos courtesy of Ann Reams.

Seven Sarracenia members and four guests grabbed the opportunity to go inside a restoration of longleaf pine sandhills in Gadsden County on the soft morning of October 6. Annie Schmidt, Chapter member and owner of the 300-acre property, graciously hosted and guided. Consistent with the aim of restoration, diverse native wildflowers of the tract were in their glory among the many thousands of young longleaf pine planted in the last 6 years. One plant, Chapman’s blazing star (Liatris chapmanii), made a particular spectacle in the combination of its great abundance and its rose-lavender beauty. Another blazing star much rarer, the endemic and endangered Gholson’s (L. gholsonii), also presented itself. In due course through the wildflower wonderland we came upon the incredibly aromatic mint coastalplain balm (Dicerandra linearifolia).

The property encloses the head of the Crooked Creek steephead system. We descended at one point through a narrow broadleaf forest into the ravine bottom, where we got shoeless in the cool flow of seepage water and waded to the base of a surprise waterfall.

To conclude a good day in the field, most of the party took advantage of a further hospitality from Annie—the opportunity to unwind by picnicking and socializing together at her big barn on the property.

Photos courtesy of David Roddenberry and Lynn Artz.

Six Sarracenia members and four guests embarked on a three-hour hike across the Apalachicola Lowlands Preserve. Located three miles northwest of Sumatra and managed by the Coastal Plains Institute (CPI), this former timber tract is undergoing restoration into a Longleaf pine forest and wiregrass savannah. Ryan Means, President of CPI, led the tour early in the morning across wetlands associated with Rowletts Creek and sandy uplands. Former stands of slash pine are selectively removed and replaced by Longleaf pine. The property is managed via an ecologically timed fire schedule that closely mimics the natural regulation of Longleaf pine forests. By burning every one to three years during the spring and early summer months, the intact seed bank has since regenerated and fire-dependent species are reappearing.

Many flowering species were observed during the hike, including Goldenrod (Bigelowia), yellow Sneezeweed (Helenium), pink Meadowbeauty (Rhexia), white Lanceleaf (Sabatia), and lavender Forked Bluecurls (Trichostema). CPI also has the unique distinction as a receiving area for the critically endangered Harper’s Beauty (Harperocallis flava). They are growing 75 plants originally propagated via seed obtained along S.R. 65 north of Sumatra.

By wading across a refreshing blackwater creek at the end of the tour, visitors were delighted to see the White Birds-In-A-Nest (Macbridea alba) flourishing on the northern side of the property. Although not in bloom, the characteristic bracts and lanceolate leaves allowed for identification. Both Harper’s Beauty and White Birds-in-A-Nest are rare plants and endemic to only a few counties of the Florida panhandle.

Photos courtesy of Desiree Cureton.

Forked Bluecurls (Trichostema dichotomum)

Ten Sarracenias and a guest gathered in southern Liberty County in Apalachicola National Forest to look in on summer wildflowers of the wet prairies. Knowing the heat could be intensive by midday, the group stepped off into the first prairie while the morning was tender. In the diverse suite of plants observed in their flowering were both of the endangered species that had most whetted our anticipation —white-birds-in-a-nest (Macbridea alba) and night-flowering petunia (Ruellia noctiflora). The elegant snowy orchid (Platanthera nivea) and the dainty pale grasspink orchid (Calopogon pallidus) also delighted us, and the iconic yellow pitcherplant (Sarracenia flava) of particular meaning for the Chapter was prominent in the scene. The party got out of the sun by 11 AM, most then resorting to the Hickory Landing recreation site to picnic together.

Photos below courtesy of Sandy Tedder.

Above: white-birds-in-a-nest (Macbridea alba)

Above: pale grasspink orchid (Calopogon pallidus)

State forester Emily Martin guided a dozen Sarracenias on a mile-long walk in Wakulla State Forest. The property, like so much land acquired in recent times by the State of Florida, is a long-term restoration project where management must decide on different goals for different zones. The  return of a fire regime, by prescribed burns, has already begun. We gave attention to the variety of native trees and shrubs, with Ms. Martin citing their different characteristics.

Photo below courtesy of Sandy Tedder.

After her presentation to Sarracenia in September, landowner Helen Roth gave members a tour of her 100-acre restoration in the sandhills-and-ravines system of western Gadsden County (not far from Torreya State Park). Helen's rehabilitation work has focused on the longleaf pine sandhill community, where fire had been excluded for many years, and on the previously impounded Crooked Creek ---now flowing free again. On this splendid early fall day, native wildflowers were fairly rioting in vivid colors where Helen's fires now sweep the land again in simulation of aboriginal conditions. (The contiguous holdings of three FNPS members here amount to a thousand acres, all of it under rehabilitation.)

The landowner and guide makes a point in the sandhills undergoing rehabilitation

A dozen Sarracenia members were treated to a close-up look at the project to naturalize a large residential yard in the Tallahassee Red Hills. Hurricane Michael's toppling several large pines in the wide front yard in 2018 opened the way for the most intensive part of the project. The diverse  meadow of local native wildflowers now occupying that ground, after hand-seeding, was in bloom for the tour.

Nia Wellendorf, far L, guides Sarracenia members in a small part of the project that she and her husband Shane have developed over the past three years.

Chapter member Melanie Trexler was elected in the annual chapter election of April 2023 to be the sixth president of the Sarracenia Chapter. Her term began on September 1 as she succeeded David Roddenberry, who had served two long stints as chapter president.

 Melanie is a resident of Ochlockonee Bay, and continues her law career while leading Sarracenia.

Melanie Trexler

The annual conference of the Florida Native Plant Society was still virtual in 2023 but it was followed in the next month by three in-person Regional Field Days held in widely distributed places with participants invited from the entire state. Sarracenia teamed up with the Magnolia and Sweetbay Chapters to produce the two-day Tallahassee Field Days. The theme was Restoration. Participants chose two field trips (with field lunch included) from four organized: Spring Canyon restoration in Gadsden County; Tall Timbers Research Station in Leon; Apalachicola Lowlands restoration tract (Coastal Plains Institute) in Liberty, and Apalachicola Nat. Forest sites in Liberty and Franklin. Everyone could attend a session of presentations and panel discussion produced at the IFAS Research Station at Quincy, this hosted by IFAS staff and the three chapters.

Catered picnic in Apalachicola Nat Forest concluding Day 2     Photo by David Roddenberry

See the Facebook page for the Sarracenia Chapter for information and images from this trip guided by chapter member Dr. Chuck Hess as follow-up to the Chapter meeting program of March 21 featuring Dr. Hess on Ecology of Northern Florida Forests.

The February 21, 2023, Chapter meeting program featuring Wakulla Springs SP manager Amy Conyers was followed four days later by a field trip guided by Ms. Conyers in the Park's recently added Ferrell Tract. The field trip party of 21 persons, half of them Sarracenia members, walked a large circuit in the 700-acre property and viewed some of its karst features and a variety of its plant life. During the walk, several more plant species were added to the tract's plant list.

The party at Blue Sink in the Ferrell Tract      Photo by David Roddenberry

The Sarracenia Chapter field trip for Native Plant Month drew a record 42 participants on a golden autumn day. We walked among wildflowers in variety in the pinelands. Participants came from five different chapters of Fla. Native Plant Society, three of them chapters seated in the Florida Peninsula. Among the many species we observed and commented on were three Florida endemic plants --plumose aster (Symphyotrichum plumosum), Florida tickseed (Coreopsis floridana), and the legume "scareweed" (Baptisia simplicifolia).

photo: Jim Folsom