Plant of the Week: April 25: Bandanna-of-the-Everglades (aka Golden Canna) (Canna flaccida)

 

The beautiful Bandanna-of-the-Everglades (Canna flaccida) is a herbaceous perennial tropical-looking plant that can be found in wet ditches, marshes, and swamp margins. It ranges throughout the US Coastal Plain from South Carolina to Florida and Texas. This is a rhizomatous plant which means it grows from underground stems (rhizomes) that are constantly giving rise to additional shoots.

Plant of the Week April 18: Pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata)

Pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata) is a common plant of ponds, streams, marshes, and wet ditches of the southeast. This plants blooms from March into November in Florida. This prolific grower can cover large areas (as seen in the bottom of the two pictures above). usually it grows to be about 2-3 feet tall. The leaves are generally large with them being usually twice as long as wide and following a lance-shape. However, there can be alot of variability! Considering how long the blooming season is, it is often easiest to identify this plant by its violet-blue spike of flowers (although sometimes they are so pale as to appear white).

I often see birds hunkering down or flitting between patches of pickerelweed as well as numerous insects (bees, butterflies, etc) visiting for nectar.

Sorry for the absence!!

Hello all. I have been sick and absent the last week or so. I will be up and running again next Monday! Until then...enjoy this pretty shot of a barred owl little one!