Palmetto Vol. 30(4) by Florida Native Plant Society

The Quarterly Journal of the Florida Native Plant Society

Palmetto

Swamp Fern Experimental Hammock ● Mockernuts ● Tarkiln Bayou ● Carex

Registration is now open for the Florida Native Plant Society's 34th Annual Conference in Ft. Myers, Florida.

This year's annual conference offers a selection of exciting programs, events, and ﬁeld trips. Attendees will hear dynamic speakers, receive high-quality content and enjoy affordable socials. The conference will be held on the campus of Florida Gulf Coast University, often referred to as "Florida's Environmental University."

To make lodging more affordable and convenient, student housing is available to conference attendees at an attractive price – only $40 per bed or $80 for a private suite with 2 beds, and incudes linens and a full breakfast. On-campus housing is strongly recommended for immersing yourself in the native plant environment. Bring your bicycle and pedal to conference activities without using your car.

Featured speakers include familiar faces – Roger Hammer and Dr. Marty Main – as well as far-ﬂung visitors like Dr. J.C. Cahill. The wide range of speakers will expand the ways we think

about native plants and ecosystems. You can even ﬁnd out how plants behave! Attend the evening event at the 170-acre Naples Botanical Garden and combine a fabulous dinner with talks and garden tours. Nearly 300 species of native plants have been documented on the garden's restored sanctuary site. The sanctuary contains approximately 33 acres of uplands, including pine ﬂatwoods, oak scrub, and a resident community of gopher tortoises.

Conference-goers will be tempted with interesting events such as an extensive native plant sale, exhibitors and vendors selected to appeal to native plant enthusiasts, the opening of the FLOR500 native plant art exhibition titled Walking with the Natives, a public event for families, student naturalist nature trail walks, and much more.

For more information or to register online, visit fnps.org.

The purpose of the Florida Native Plant Society is to preserve, conserve, and restore the native plants and native plant communities of Florida.

Official definition of native plant: For most purposes, the phrase Florida native plant refers to those species occurring within the state boundaries prior to European contact, according to the best available scientific and historical documentation. More specifically, it includes those species understood as indigenous, occurring in natural associations in habitats that existed prior to significant human impacts and alterations of the landscape.

Organization: Members are organized into regional chapters throughout Florida. Each chapter elects a Chapter Representative who serves as a voting member of the Board of Directors and is responsible for advocating the chapter’s needs and objectives.

FNPS Board of Directors

Executive Ofﬁcers

President .............................Steve Woodmansee

Past President......................Gene Kelly

Vice President, Administration Devon Higginbotham Vice President, Finance ........Brenda Mills

Treasurer .............................Kim Zarillo

Secretary .............................Martha Steuart

Committee Chairs

Communications ..................Shirley Denton

Publications .....................VACANT

Social Media ....................Laurie Sheldon Website ...........................Shirley Denton

Conference ..........................Marlene Rodak

Conservation .......................Juliet Rynear

Education & Outreach ..........Debra Klein

Finance ...............................Brenda Mills

Development ...................VACANT

Landscape ...........................Karina Veaudry

Membership ........................VACANT

Policy & Legislation ..............Gene Kelly

Land Management Partners ...Anne Cox

Vice Chair East ................Danny Young

Vice Chair West................Kevin Love

Science ...............................Paul Schmalzer

Council of Chapters ............Julie Becker

Directors-at-Large, 2012–2014

Jon Moore, Julie Wert

To contact board members: Visit www.fnps.org or write care of: FNPS PO Box 278, Melbourne FL 32902-0278

Society Services

Executive Director ................Kellie Westervelt

Administrative Services .......Cammie Donaldson

Editor, Palmetto ....................Marjorie Shropshire

Editor, Sabal Minor ...............Stacey Matrazzo

Webmaster ..........................Paul Rebmann

The Palmetto (ISSN 0276-4164) Copyright 2014, Florida Native Plant Society, all rights reserved. No part of the contents of this magazine may be reproduced by any means without written consent of the editor. The Palmetto is published four times a year by the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) as a beneﬁt to members. The observations and opinions expressed in attributed columns and articles are those of the respective authors and should not be interpreted as representing the ofﬁcial views of the Florida Native Plant Society or the editor, except where otherwise stated.

Editorial Content

We have a continuing interest in articles on native plant species and related conservation topics, as well as high-quality botanical illustrations and photographs. Contact the editor for guidelines, deadlines and other information. Editor: Marjorie Shropshire, Visual Key Creative, Inc. palmetto@fnps.org ● (772) 285-4286 ● 1876 NW Fork Road, Stuart, FL 34994

The

Quarterly Journal of the Florida Native Plant Society

Palmetto

Features

4 Swamp Fern Experimental Hammock

An experimental hammock in Miami-Dade County is a testing ground for a novel restoration approach that may provide land managers with additional means to conserve rare species, and a tool to reduce noxious exotics on public lands. Article by Wesley R. Brooks and Rebecca C. Jordan.

8 Mockernut Hickory: A Hard Nut To Crack

One of six hickory species native to Florida, Carya tomentosa is now scarce, the victim of over-logging and ﬁre suppression. Jack Putz takes a long view of the mockernut, from its use as a foodstuff by pre-Columbian residents of Florida to its status in the present day.

10 Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park

Located in the extreme western portion of Florida, Tarkiln Bayou Preserve harbors near pristine stands of the rare and endangered whitetop pitcherplant ( Sarracenia leucophylla), as well as other interesting species. Article by Glenn Butts.

12 Carex: Where Are They?

Sedges such as Carex grow in every part of Florida, except for the Keys, where they are limited by a lack of salt tolerance. Linda Curtis explores the multitude of locations where Carex can found.

ON THE COVER: Pine ﬂatwoods at Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park, Escambia County, Florida. (Photo by Glenn Butts).

Make a difference with FNPS Your membership supports the preservation and restoration of wildlife habitats and biological diversity through the conservation of native plants. It also funds awards for leaders in native plant education, preservation and research.

● Individual $35

● Family or household $50

● Contributing $75 (with $25 going to the Endowment)

● Not-for-proﬁt organization $50

● Business or corporate $125

● Supporting $100

● Donor $250

● Lifetime $1,000

● Full time student $15

Please consider upgrading your membership level when you renew.

To become a member:

Contact your local Chapter Representative, call, write, or e-mail FNPS, or join online at www.fnps.org

Florida Native Plant Society PO Box 278 Melbourne FL 32902-0278 Phone: (321) 271-6702 info@fnps.org www.fnps.org Follow FNPS online: Blog: http://fnpsblog.blogspot.com/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/FNPSfans Twitter: twitter.com/FNPSonline

LinkedIn: Groups, Florida Native Plant Society

Swamp Fern Experimental Hammock: past

disturbances, present challenges, and a hopeful future

Florida’s native landscapes have come under enormous pressures over the last century. In particular, agricultural expansion and development have been the primary drivers of the habitat destruction and fragmentation that threatens the long-term prospects of Florida’s unique ﬂoristic communities. While the many worthwhile preservation and conservation initiatives ongoing in the state are a key piece of maintaining Florida’s ecological heritage, it is unclear whether these actions alone are sufﬁcient to overcome the damages incurred in the past, ongoing in the present, and those yet to come, especially when the underlying factors promoting these outcomes are unlikely to wane anytime soon.

Ecological restoration has been touted for its potential to not just stem the tide of damages, but potentially reverse them. However, there are major uncertainties surrounding our ability to use ecological restoration effectively. Perhaps the most important is the realization that ecosystems and communities are not the static entities we often believe they are, and as we subsequently try to manage them to be. The fact is that all

ecological systems are incredibly dynamic, each reacting to multiple biotic and abiotic influences and a host of short- and long-term feedback loops that make predicting future changes difficult. The actions of humans can shortcut or exacerbate these influences and make understanding ecosystem behavior that much more challenging. Additionally, political and socioeconomic considerations may also have tremendous consequences for the success of individual restoration initiatives, impacting both what restoration outcomes are desired and even what criteria will be used to evaluate success. In light of these arduous challenges, it makes sense to question the traditional motive of ecological restoration – to return a site or community to its previous “natural” condition – for densely populated areas, just try to imagine how well a return to the natural hydroperiods or fire regimes necessary to support many of Florida’s historical plant communities would be received in your neighborhood! Recognizing that traditional restoration is often at loggerheads with modern human civilization, new paradigms of restoration ecology, including Rosenzweig’s (2003) “Reconciliation Ecology”, are beginning to be developed. We too, like Rosenzweig, believe that the only way

Typical scene from Swamp Fern Experimental Hammock early in the restoration effort with air potato (Dioscorea bulbifera) climbing on chemically-treated Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolia) snags.

Swamp Fern Experimental Hammock after two years of restoration efforts. Note outplanted pigeonplum (Coccoloba diversifolia) in foreground.

Wesley R. Brooks and Rebecca C. Jordan

(left) and unrestored (right) areas of Swamp Fern Experimental Hammock.

the thick cover of Asian sword fern (Nephrolepis brownii ) in unrestored areas as opposed to the sparse cover of the native swamp fern (Blechnum serrulatum) after restoration treatments.

to preserve Earth’s breathtaking biological diversity lies not in “asking [people] to stop earning a living or making a proﬁt”, but rather by “sharing our habitats deliberately with other species” (Rosenzweig, 2003). Thus, we sought to develop a new model to allow the beneﬁts of ecological restoration to be realized in human-dominated landscapes. Our “Novel Native” model aims to pragmatically select natives from the larger region – rather than just from a site or community’s historical pool – that are adapted to the existing conditions at degraded sites when historical conditions cannot be re-created (Brooks & Jordan, 2014). Ultimately, we hoped that our approach would allow for increased biodiversity in metropolitan areas, and provide land managers with an additional means to conserve rare species by expanding potential habitat, as well as a potential tool to reduce the invasibility of public lands by noxious exotics. We sought to test the potential for this model of restoration to accomplish these goals by establishing Swamp Fern Experimental Hammock (SFEH) in 2008.

Continued on page 6

Restored

Note

Outplanted Florida ﬁddlewood (Citharexylum spinosum) in bloom.

From left: outplanted West Indian lilac (Tetrazygia bicolor) in bloom; new recruit from outplanted lancewood (Ocotea coriacea) populations.

Outplanted chiggery grapes (Tournefortia hirsutissima), a rare, state-listed endangered species.

Site History

Conditions at this site have changed dramatically since Miami’s first population boom over one hundred years ago, and as a result, so have the plant communities. Modern geological maps and old aerial photographs from as early as 1938 show that SFEH was located on the northern edge of a limestone outcrop island along the Miami Rock Ridge, a fact that is corroborated by evidence of surface water flow and erosion in small areas of exposed limestone substrate of the site. The aerial photos also show a slough winding around the northern edge of the outcrop island and a few areas of hardwoods in small scattered mesic and hydric hammocks along the slough to the east and a few others more than a mile to the northwest of present day SFEH. Encroaching development, including the construction of roadways and clearing of land for agriculture and other development is evident even 75 years ago. After these initial disturbances, the fairly frequent fires that would have affected this area were excluded, and as a result, the site was slowly colonized by hardwoods from the nearest hammocks, leading to the mesic hammock character of the site today.

Several decades after this development-induced ﬁre exclusion began, the whole of South Florida’s landscape was altered by the Central and South Florida Project (for an excellent historical account of the politics surrounding this project and the Everglades as a whole, see Grunwald 2006): a massive series of water control structures and canals that ultimately succeeded in lowering the water table along the Miami Rock Ridge by several feet or more. The SFEH site that had slowly been succeeding from marl prairie / pine rockland towards mesic hammock, was now faced with shorter hydroperiods and considerably drier soils than the majority of hardwood colonizers were adapted to withstand. Relatively drought-tolerant species such as live oak (Quercus

virginiana), cabbage palm (Sabal palmetto), and cocoplum (Chrysobalanus icaco) are ubiquitous on the site today as a result, while wetter-loving species such as swamp bay (Persea palustris), laurel oak (Quercus laurifolia), and dahoon holly ( Ilex cassine) exist today as only a few rare reproductively mature specimens unable to recruit, with the end result being a relatively low diversity mesic hammock.

More recently, SFEH has had to contend with two additional disturbances that have shaped the character of the site: species invasions and Hurricane Andrew. Invasive species have gradually been accumulating at the site for many decades, but the changing nature of the surrounding region from mainly agricultural to residential by the 1980s meant many more opportunities for exotic species to establish on the site after dispersing from neighborhood lawns and landscapes. Once there, these invaders found lots of opportunities to thrive with only a few of the extant native hardwoods being able to successfully recruit on the site. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew wreaked havoc on Miami-Dade County and SFEH was no exception; the existing canopy was razed, further tilting the balance in favor of fast-growing exotics over most natives. Noxious trees like Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolia) and Australian umbrellatree (Schefﬂera actinophylla) grew to prominent roles in the newly developing canopy, shoebutton ardisia ( Ardisia elliptica) would become the most numerous and proliﬁc woody plant on the site, and vines including rosary pea ( Abrus precatorius), air potato (Dioscorea bulbifera), and velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens) would limit the potential of native canopy to recover. Further inhibiting the recruitment of young native trees and shrubs was the rapid spread of Asian sword fern (Nephrolepis brownii), the most abundant ground cover prior to site restoration in 2008.

Restoration

The primary goal of the restoration was to change the character of the site from that of a relictual mesic hammock to a tropical hardwood hammock more typical of the Miami Rock Ridge. We hypothesized that such a community might be more sustainable on the site given that tropical hardwood hammock species are typically more drought tolerant than mesic hammock species, and thus better able to thrive given the modern hydrology of the region. We also hypothesized that a more complete and thriving plant community on SFEH might be more successful at resisting invasion by exotic plants. Miami-Dade County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management and Department of Parks and Recreation’s Natural Areas Management Division provided the requisite permissions and access to the approximately 3-acre highly disturbed woodlot in suburban Southwest MiamiDade County. We also worked with the Miami-Dade County Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society to obtain a Conservation Grant from FNPS to fund the purchase

Aerial map of the area in 1938 (USDA 1938). The black box indicates the modern boundaries of Swamp Fern Experimental Hammock.

of novel native plantings to be used in the restoration experiment. Within the interior of SFEH, we established 150 experimental quadrats measuring 15 square meters each. In March of 2008, we began data collection by recording all plant species present in each quadrat along with ﬂoristic composition and forest structure variables including species richness, tree density, canopy cover, etc. After consulting with FNPS’ own Steve Woodmansee, as well as John Lawson of Silent Natives Nursery, we selected 26 species of tropical hardwood hammock woody plants that were absent from our earlier survey for outplanting into SFEH; including chiggery grapes (Tournefortia hirsutissima), an endangered tropical liana, only known in Florida from 12 conservation areas (Gann et al. 2013). We used varying combinations of species richness and density of outplantings to augment the ﬂora of individual quadrats, being sure to leave some quadrats unplanted. Using this experimental approach we were able to detect whether potential changes in community composition and forest structure variables at SFEH were related to the species richness or density of outplanting treatments used in the restoration. In June 2009, we outplanted 540 individuals throughout our experimental quadrats and also began clearing exotics by physical removal and chemical treatment within the experimental area. We returned regularly over the next two and a half years to check the health of our outplantings, collect data on the progress of the restoration, and manage exotics.

By January of 2012, we were able to label our restoration a tentative success. First, our outplantings experienced low mortality (only 15.7% of outplanted individuals died) and positive growth (individuals grew nearly a centimeter per month on average between June 2009 and December 2011) suggesting that we successfully matched our introduced species with the abiotic conditions at the site. This accomplishment is even more impressive considering that we provided no supplemental water whatsoever to outplanted individuals. As a result of these successful introductions, the number of natives on the site increased from 36 to 58, and the number of threatened or endangered species increased from four to 10 (Brooks & Jordan, 2014). There is also evidence that three of our outplanted species have begun to recruit on the site, along with several others that ﬂowered and produced fruit.

Secondly, our exotic management was also successful. Exotic cover was decimated on the site as a result of our actions, though continuing invasions mean that we have not eliminated all exotics. We did, however, reduce the total number of exotic species on the site from 26 to 14, including the elimination of six noxious species listed by the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council (Brooks & Jordan, 2014). While we found no evidence that introducing natives reduced the invasibility of the site by exotics, we did ﬁnd multiple lines of evidence suggesting that a reduction in exotics was beneﬁcial to natives. In particular, canopy cover and basal area (a measure of productivity and size

of trees in a forest), declined directly as a result of our exotic removals, but surpassed 2009 levels in under two years as a result of strong native growth (Brooks & Jordan, 2014).

What’s next for Swamp Fern Experimental Hammock?

We continue to monitor our outplantings at SFEH. Ultimately, we hope that these new species will expand their populations naturally across the rest of the site, demonstrating the sustainability and cost-effectiveness of these kinds of projects. Additionally, we have reduced our management pressure on exotics and are interested to see how these species respond given the ongoing success of our outplantings and other native hammock components. We also have several plans in the works to solidify the future of this site as an important conservation and educational tool in Miami-Dade County. First, we are trying to approach the county to increase the level of legal protection currently afforded the site. Upon achieving a more permanent conservation status, the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden’s South Florida Conservation Team has expressed some interest in using the site for reintroducing other rare plant populations. Second, a STEM-focused magnet school opened adjacent to the site in 2009, the TERRA Environmental Research Institute, and may provide a potential partnership whereby students can directly engage in ecological monitoring and research. We hope that SFEH may provide a workable model for the Novel Native approach to restoring native communities in metropolitan areas that can be applied at other sites through Florida and beyond. ❂

References Cited

Brooks, W.R., and R.C. Jordan. 2014. Restoring tropical dry forest communities: effects of habitat management and outplantings on composition and structure. Set to be published in the March issue of Restoration Ecology.

Gann, G.D., K.A. Bradley, and S.W. Woodmansee. 2013. Floristic Inventory of South Florida. The Institute for Regional Conservation, Miami, Florida, USA. Available at: www.regionalconservation.org

Grunwald, M. 2006. The Swamp: the Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise. Simon & Schuster, New York, New York.

Rosenzweig, M.L. 2003. Win-Win Ecology: How the Earth’s species can survive in the midst of human enterprise. Oxford University Press, New York, New York.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). 1938. Aerial photographs of Dade County Flight 2. Map and Imagery Library, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida. Gainesville, Florida, USA. Available at: http://ufdc.uﬂ.edu/UF00071738/00002/12j

About the Authors

Dr. Wesley R. Brooks is a native of Miami and has researched species invasions in ﬁsh and plant communities of South Florida as well as the community structure and ecological restoration of tropical hardwood hammocks along the Miami Rock Ridge. He is now a member of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s (FL-27) Washington, DC-based professional staff at the U.S. House of Representatives, following a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Fellowship awarded by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. wrbrooks@gmail.com

Dr. Rebecca C. Jordan is the Director of the Program in Science Learning at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. She devotes most of her research efforts to investigating public learning of science through environmental education and citizen science. jordan@aesop.rutgers.edu

“...we rely on your justice and humanity; we hope you will not send us south, to a country where neither the hickory nut, the acorn, nor the persimmon grows...” – Neamathla, Mikasuki hard-liner, 1824, during negotiations for the Treaty of Moultrie Creek

Mockernut Hickory: A Hard Nut to Crack

Francis E.”Jack” Putz

Mockernut (Carya tomentosa) is one of six hickory species native to Florida. It ranges from Lake Erie down to just south of Ocala. Pignut hickory (C. glabra) shares that geography but its nuts were apparently not as important to pre-Columbian Floridians. Mockernut can be distinguished from pignut by its fuzzy (tomentose) leaves, thick twigs, and brilliant ochre autumn coloration. In 1539 near what is now Gainesville, Hernando de Soto’s ill-fated expeditionary force encountered a large grove of what they called walnut but was more likely mockernut. Sadly, mockernut trees are now scarce, victims of over-logging and ﬁre suppression in the woodlands in which they once abounded.

Mockernut’s geography was relevant to the Seminoles and to their Timucuan predecessors because its nuts were an important food and source of vegetable oil. As a member of the Juglandaceae, the family that features both pecans and walnuts, the exquisite taste of mockernuts is perhaps no surprise. What surprised me is how hard it is to eat a mockernut – a very hard nut to crack and then, once cracked, the deeply divided seed is hard to extract.

After several commercial nutcrackers proved incapable of mockernut cracking I resorted to a hammer but only managed to make a mess. Then, inspired by my predecessors, I rolled out the live oak mortar-and-pestle I lovingly crafted and presented to my wife. I mention that device with some chagrin because, for reasons that elude me, she has never used it and reacts in a peculiar fashion when I suggest that she do so. Be that as it may, when I took the matter into my own hands, I only managed to make mockernut butter with a liberal mixture of chipped shells.

William Bartram described how the Seminoles he visited in the 1770s made hickory soup: “They pound them to pieces, and then cast them into boiling water, which, after passing through ﬁne strainers, preserves the most oily part of the liquid; this they call by a name with signiﬁes Hiccory

milk; it is sweet and rich as fresh cream, and is an ingredient in most of their cookery, especially homony and corn cakes.” The same basic processing instructions can be found in numerous books about eating-off-the-land, but I wonder whether the authors ever tested Bartram’s method. I do know that when I followed these instructions and every imaginable variation on the theme, the results resembled neither hickory nut soup nor hickory oil. Instead, I ended up with bitter and grey-black masses laced with shell fragments with no indication of oil separation. Perhaps the common name of “mockernut” was coined to capture just this sort of frustration. In any case, I can pose three explanations for my failure:

1. The Seminole men who told Bartram how to make hickory nut soup did not know the ﬁner points of a process in which they had never personally participated, leaving that task to their wives, sisters, and mothers.

2. To maintain their intellectual property rights, Bartram’s informants withheld some critical steps in the process.

3. I am culinarily challenged.

In my house at least, the mystery of making mockernuts into food will remain unsolved for at least another year because all the nuts I collected and cracked were empty –full sized but seedless, perhaps due to too much rain during the ﬁlling season or the depredations of some pathogen.

Prior to Amerindian removal followed by plowing, fencing, and ﬁre suppression, an ecosystem dominated by longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), southern red oak (Quercus falcata), and mockernut was reportedly once widespread in the South. Few people are now aware of this ecosystem type because it was among the ﬁrst to be cleared by colonizing farmers –they too appreciated its relatively nutrient-rich soils.

Scattered southern red oaks on our land on the outskirts of Gainesville, even scarcer mockernuts, the occasional longleaf pine, and some subsoil clay suggest that the area once supported this now-rare ecosystem. Turpentine tapping, logging, rooting by hogs, cattle grazing, and decades of ﬁre suppression easily account for the scarcity of longleaf pines, and the large southern red oaks are dying at an alarming rate for unknown reasons, but the cause of our mockernut deﬁcit was not initially apparent. Then, while he was searching through land records at the Alachua County Courthouse, my neighbor Robert “Hutch” Hutchinson found a record from the 1950s of a sale of hickory timber by a former owner of our property. Presumably the hickory in question was mockernut, the wood of which was crafted into golf club shafts and handles for hammers and tennis rackets – some of it certainly smoked hams. Now we are left mostly with stump sprouts and wolf trees of a species that was presumably once more common.

Former prominence of mockernuts in our landscape is also suggested by archaeological evidence from a nearby 1000-year-old village site. The excavation revealed the usual

assortment of ﬁsh bones, alligator scutes, and pottery shards, but also several large subterranean food storage bins. Based on the abundance of broken nuts, archaeologists concluded that the bins were used for mockernuts. This revelation caused me to revise my vision of pre-Columbian landscapes and to alter my restoration goals while it otherwise wreaked havoc on my concept of “natural” Florida.

I believe that Seminoles, Timucuans, and earlier inhabitants managed substantial portions of the landscape as mockernut orchards. To facilitate harvesting, they burned the understory in their orchards just before nut drop in October. I recognize that October does not fall in Florida’s “natural” fire season, but it is hard to find fallen mockernuts unless you first burn off the underbrush. Based on numerous failed nut-planting efforts that benefited only bush-tailed tree rats (i.e., gray squirrels – note that I advocate for fox squirrels), I also propose that our predecessors ate a lot of Brunswick stew. Further support for this conclusion is that a good place to collect mockernuts is near the house of a pot-hunting neighbor with a grey squirrel vendetta.

In the absence of sufﬁcient grey squirrel control in the area I am trying to restore to mockernut prominence, I resorted

Continued on page 15

Above: Collecting mockernuts is greatly facilitated by burning just prior to nut drop – the nuts stand out against the charred litter.

Left: Mockernut trees become obvious in the autumn but are otherwise distinguishable from pignuts by the abundant hairs on the undersurfaces of their large compound leaves.

Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park

All state lands managed by the state of Florida, such as parks and forests, have approved land management plans to facilitate the management of the property according to the original intent of the purchase. A land management review (LMR) is conducted on each property on a ﬁve year cycle, and the results obtained from the review may be used to update an individual plan as newly acquired data suggests. LMR teams, consisting of park personnel, a Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) representative, and interested private citizens participate in the process. Other attendees may include soil conservation districts and environmental groups.

Mike McGrath and I represented the Florida Native Plant Society's Longleaf Pine Chapter (Pensacola), in the Tarkiln Bayou LMR. The review consisted of a full day ﬁeld trip, and park personnel presented their management plan with emphasis on the salient points we would observe in the ﬁeld. During the trip we

observed areas most indicative of the nature of this park, including the unique habitats that prompted the purchase of the lands for preservation. The following morning we presented our ﬁeld observations, and ﬁlled out land management review forms.

In the 1980s, a proposal was made to dredge Tarkiln Bayou out into Perdido Bay for a marina, housing development, and wastewater treatment plant. Since no uplands were available for the wastewater plant or the sprayﬁeld disposal of efﬂuent, the project was rejected. Lack of approval for the development project allowed the Tarkiln Bayou site west of Bauer Road to become available for state purchase.

In 1994, this site had been targeted as part of the Conservation and Recreation Lands Program (CARL) priority list for the Perdido Pitcher Plant Prairie. Purchase of the site was approved by the Land Acquisition Advisory Council in 1998 and named Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park.

The areas west of Bauer Road are managed state lands with public walkways and signage indicating habitat types and the plants contained in these habitats. The main

Article and photos by Glenn Butts

path is clearly marked and provides easy walking all the way to Tarkiln Bayou. There is also a primitive hiking trail along the border with the U.S. Navy's Bronson Field, ending at Perdido Bay. Other trails border Perdido Bay along an upland hammock. All these trails are marked for public access. The areas east of Bauer Road are state owned, but are not managed at this time due to insufﬁcient funding.

Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park is located in Escambia County, in the extreme western portion of Florida, east across Perdido Bay from Alabama. The Tarkiln Bayou Preserve is probably the only wholly contained watershed completely owned by the state of Florida. This increases protection of water quality in this coastal embayment by reducing sources of surface water contaminants, in this case mostly storm water runoff. Tarkiln's northern boundary is the U.S. Navy's Bronson Field, an old World War II seaplane base. The U.S. Navy partners with park personnel to maintain the existing boundary line and assists with ﬁre management. Newly acquired lands east of Bauer Road and west of Blue Angel Parkway comprise the eastern boundary. The park property now consists of approximately 7,661 acres.

The land was purchased to preserve intact stands of the rare and endangered whitetop pitcherplant (Sarracenia leucophylla). The wet prairies that support Sarracenia and perhaps 100 other species of plants were threatened by drainage ditches, upland ﬁll for development, and silviculture practices that could result in lowered water tables, rapid drying of the soil, and disturbance of the pitcher plant's unique habitat. Today, the Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park protects one of the most pristine examples of pitcher plant prairie in the southeastern United States.

Habitats found in the preserve include wet prairie characterized by high water tables, nutrient poor acid soils and, in this case, a canopy of slash pine ( Pinus elliottii). Understory plants include pitcher plant stands, pink sundew (Drosera capillaris), a Rhynchospora species, (possibly colorata, or starrush whitetop), Carolina redroot ( Lachnanthes caroliana), wiregrass ( Aristida sp.), saw palmetto (Serenoa repens), and many small clump grass species. Upland hammocks found directly along Perdido Bay are characterized by live oak (Quercus virginiana), a hickory species, (possibly Carya glabra), turkey oak, ( Quercus laevis) and the federally endangered largeleaf jointweed ( Polygonella macrophylla). Seasonally ﬂooded wetland drainages also occur, but these generally evolve into wet prairies during drought periods. There are no free ﬂowing streams in these areas, only seepage bogs that may resemble a blackwater stream during periods of high rainfall.

All of Tarkiln Preserve is best served by periodic controlled burns occurring on a 2-3 year rotation. It is well known that periodic fires are beneficial to maintain a healthy ecosystem within pine flatwoods communities. Fires will burn off ground fuel loads, releasing valuable nutrients into the otherwise nutrient poor soils. This allows some fire dependant plants to regenerate and also releases seeds lying dormant in the seed bank to sprout. In the spring, after a controlled burn, the charred ground bursts forth into a wildflower meadow between slash pine and saw palmetto, which creates quite a sight for the public to observe along Bauer Road in April and May.

The LMR process offers opportunities to interject real plant knowledge and experience into the management of state lands. I encourage FNPS members statewide to get involved in local land management issues, as well as land reviews. ❂

Sources Consulted

Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park, Unit Management Plan, State of Florida, Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Recreation and Parks. October 13, 2006.

Anne Harvey, Park Biologist, Presentation

About the Author

Glenn Butts is a retired biologist. He worked for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Northwest District, Pensacola. Glenn is a member of the Florida Native Plant Society's Longleaf Pine Chapter.

Visitor Information: http://www.ﬂoridastateparks.org/tarkilnbayou/

Land Management Review Reports: http://www.dep.state.ﬂ.us/lands/stew_reports.htm

Left: Tarkiln Bayou; uplands hammocks. Right: Sarracenia leucophylla.

Tarkiln

Perdido

Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park, Escambia County, Florida.

Linda Curtis

Carex where are they?

The Cyperaceae (SI-per-A-see-ee) or sedge family contains several genera including the genus Carex (KA-reks). More than 71 species of Carex grow in Florida, as listed in the online Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants, (www. ﬂorida.plantatlas.usf.edu/) and also in the book Guide to the Vascular Plants of Florida (Wunderlin and Hansen 2011). Florida has six planting zones, and sedges are restricted to speciﬁc habitats within these zones.

To the trained eye, Carex seem to be everywhere, but to a hiker they may appear to be grassy things, not as interesting or attractive as plants with bright ﬂowers (Fig 1). Sedges such as Carex grow in every county of Florida, even southernmost Monroe County, except the Florida Keys. Storm surges with salt water seem to delineate how far inland Carex can grow until years of rainwater dilutes the salt to tolerable levels. While Carex are absent from saline environments, not all genera of the sedge family Cyperaceae are salt intolerant and ﬂatsedges in the genus Cyperus grow along the Gulf Coast and in the Florida Keys as well.

Still, some Carex grow near the Gulf Coast along the Ozello Trail in Citrus County. Small and grass-like in appearance, they were disregarded and mowed, run over, dug up, and well, you get it, eliminated. I once

Fig. 2 C. chapmannii

Fig. 3 C. dasycarpa

Fig. 4 C. dasycarpa

Fig. 1 Grassy clumps of Carex on a creek side

snatched an endangered C. chapmannii off a bulldozer rut where water pipes were to be buried the next day. That specimen with a diagnostic off-sided rhizome is now at the New York Botanic Garden Herbarium (Fig 2). The Carex along the Ozello Trail are calciphytes, meaning they grow in calcium rich soils overlying limestone bedrock.

Most Carex grow inland, away from the coast, and are habitat specific, meaning you won’t find them anywhere else. As its common name implies, sandywoods sedge (C. dasycarpa) grows in hardwood forests on sandy soil (Fig 3). A small tuft, this rare plant grew with other plants in the herb layer near the campground in Manatee Springs. The campers probably never noticed. In Figure 4, each of sandywoods sedge’s hairy perigynia enclose a single seed-like achene. The perigynium on the left was opened and its stalked achene is visible. By definition, an achene is a dry fruit with a single seed fused inside.

Another dry woodland sedge is one of the star sedges, named for the starry clusters of perigynia spaced along the culms (stems). This specimen of reﬂexed sedge (C. retroﬂexa) grew along the entrance to a boat ramp at Lake Lindsey in Hernando County. The grass-like tuft likely grew from hitchhiker perigynia that were stuck in grooves of trailer tires and were “human dispersed” as we botanists say, instead of by wind or water (Fig. 5).

The Goethe State Forest in Levy County has many Carex species that appear as patches of grasses, but are mostly Carex mixed with some woodland grasses (Fig 6). Prescribed ﬁres burn the thatch and allow the herb layer to sprout and the Carex

to ﬂourish. Slight depressions such as former logging roads will hold rainwater slightly longer and favor species such as C. godfreyi and C. gholsonii, both plants named for Florida botanists. During drier years or droughts, the cypress swamps become dry enough for their peaty soil to support many sedges that grew around the drier edges. C. gigantea and C. lupuliformis are seen as upright green shoots behind the cypress knees in Figure 7. Some Carex live as aquatic emergents in water along ponds or beside lakes or rivers where their roots are constantly wet. Figure 8 shows a lawn mowed to the edge of the Withlacoochee River. Here, the cypress knees have been cut down, but a fringe of Carex still persists behind the cypress trunks. Carex clumps have long rhizomes that bind themselves into the soil and stabilize the shore.

Fig. 5 C. retroﬂexa

Figs. 6, 7, 8 Carex are found in a variety of habitats

Wetland species often grow 2-3 feet tall and have conspicuous seed heads (Fig 9). Giant sedge (C. gigantea) has spikes with more horizontal sacs than false hop sedge (C. lupuliformis), that has more ascending sacs. As you might guess, they are related. Both species have a narrow terminal staminate (male) spike. The stamens bloomed much earlier and dehisced before the perigynia were mature.

Another wetland sedge, warty sedge (C. verrucosa), also has a terminal spike bright with yellow stamens while the lower spikes have white stigmas that accept the pollen (Fig 10). Since Carex are wind pollinated and have no nectaries, the bees leave them alone. Within weeks the matured spikes are full of perigynia with colorful scales (Fig 11).

How does one begin to learn the sedges? Botanists know, as birders do, to study illustrations before going on a hike, such as those in Flora of North America, Volume 23: Cyperaceae, 2002. If the area’s sedges have been previously inventoried, take time to review what has already been discovered. Sedges are seldom included in plant ﬁeld guides, so a stop at a ranger station or nature center may help if they have a photo board, or better yet, a herbarium where pressed Carex specimens can be viewed before setting out.

After my ﬁeld research, collected specimens are not immediately placed in a plant press. First the leaves and culms are taped in a bunch and then labeled and placed in a cup of water in plastic bag. Later the plants are studied and imaged on a scanner with a centimeter ruler. Next, microscopic photos of structures such as perigynia and leaf sheaths are taken with a microscopemounted digital camera.

My specimens and images of Carex are part of the University of South Florida's Plant Atlas website. After the pressed plants are dried and labeled, they

are mailed in newsprint reinforced with cardboard. Specimens are also sent to herbaria at the University of Florida and Florida State University. Many herbaria now make scanned images of Carex and other plant specimens on labeled herbarium sheets accessible on their websites.

Collecting plants is prohibited in nature preserves unless one has permission, usually with research in mind. I was granted permission to collect in the National Fish and Wildlife Preserves in the Lower Suwannee River Refuge in Levy and Dixie Counties and Three Sisters Springs in Citrus County. The updated inventories that resulted from my collections were worthwhile, in spite of mosquitoes, wood ticks, and pseudo-scorpions under my clothing. For this botanist, a hot shower cures all memory of sweaty hardships. ❂

About the Author

Linda Curtis is a retired botany instructor and rewired botanist who enjoys Florida's beautiful natural areas. Her article Sedges, Do We Know Them? was published in Palmetto 25:2, April 2008. She is a member of the Citrus County Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society.

Fig. 9 L-R: Carex gigantea and C. lupuliformis

Fig. 10 C. verrucosa in stamen and stigma bloom

Fig. 11 C. verrucosa with matured perigynia, stamens and stigmas gone

Mockernut Hickory (continued from page 9)

to out-planting seedlings raised for a year in tall pots. After 6 years in the ground, many of the seedlings were alive but only knee-high. Even the ones that I inadvertently chopped or burned off had resprouted and grown to about the same height. Some shovel work revealed that, like long leaf pines, mockernuts invest heavily below-ground – my knee-high seedlings were supported by taproots deeper than I was willing to dig. Apparently they spend many years preparing themselves to rapidly bolt through the stages during which they are ﬁre-susceptible. Those that do pass the gauntlet of early life may live to be 500 years old. These rather iconoclastic suggestions about our land’s history caused me to radically rethink our management practices and restoration goals. Instead of being pristine, virgin, unsullied, or otherwise “natural” until being despoiled by Europeans, I now believe that for at least a few thousand years, portions of our landscapes were humanized, domesticated, and otherwise managed. Certainly north central Florida was not one big mockernut orchard, but it also was no wilderness area where the hand of man never set foot.

Postscript

To the list of three explanations for my failure to make mockernuts into food I now need to add a fourth, inadequate scholarship, and perhaps a ﬁfth, sloth. My oversight of an important article on the making of hickory nut soup was corrected by an archaeological colleague as this article went to press. In their 2001 article entitled “Ethnobotany of ku-nu-che: Cherokee hickory nut soup” (Journal of Ethnobiology volume 21 pages 1-27) authors G.J. Fritz, V. Drywater Whitekiller, and J. W. McIntosh

clarify that I stopped my nut processing too soon. The traditional approach, which is still employed, involves pounding the nuts and then forming the mixture of shell fragments and nutmeat into softball size and shape masses. The balls can be stored frozen for months and when it’s soup time, dissolved in boiling water, strained to remove the shell fragments, sweetened or salted, and eaten with rice or hominy. Ku-nu-che soup reportedly remains a much-relished holiday treat in Cherokee communities. The authors also point out that the caloric and protein contents of hickory nuts are far higher than other nuts, which reinforces the argument that they were a critical food source. Even more intriguing is their suggestion that mockernut orchards were prime sites for domestication of sumpweed ( Iva annua) and goosefoot (Chenopodium berlandieri), both highly nutritious seed crops that deserve more attention from modern farmers. ❂

2014 FNPS Conference Speakers Address Unique Topics

There are a few things you can always count on ﬁnding at an FNPS Annual Conference, and foremost among them is the slate of interesting speakers who teach, stimulate, and inspire. This year, we are honored to have Dr. James Cahill and Dr. Jim Wohlpart among those who will encourage us to think about Florida's native plants and ecosystems in new ways.

What Do Plants Talk About?

Dr. James (J.C.) Cahill is a professor of ecology at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, where his research group focuses on topics that include plant foraging behavior, mountain pine beetle impacts on soil ecology, climate change effects on rangeland sustainability, and pollination biology.

Dr. Cahill says, “Though plants do not feel, think, nor understand...can they behave? If so, how does this alter our perception of nature? In this talk I will discuss general issues in this new ﬁeld, as well as provide some speciﬁc work conducted by my lab. I will suggest we are undergoing a paradigm shift in our understanding of plants, with potentially important implications and opportunities. Further, though plants and animals differ greatly in many ways, their behavior appears to be more similar than imagined.”

Remembering Sacred Reason: Global Warming, Sense of Place, and Native Species

Dr. Jim Wohlpart is Professor of Environmental Literature at Florida Gulf

Coast University, and a Senior Scholar with the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education. He works to broaden the understanding of sustainability to include questions of the spirit.

Dr. Wohlpart has coedited two volumes: A Voice for Earth: American Writers Respond to the Earth Charter and Unspoiled: Writers Speak for Florida's Coast. His latest book is entitled Walking in the Land of Many Gods: Remembering Sacred Reason in Contemporary Environmental Literature. Dr. Wohlpart says that his philosophy of teaching centers around educating the whole person, not just the head or hands, but also the heart. He sees education as a lifelong journey that brings us to new states of knowledge and awareness.

For more conference information, visit www.fnps.org

FNPS Chapters and Representatives

CHAPTER REPRESENTATIVE E-MAIL

1. Broward Richard Brownscombe richard@brownscombe.net

2. Citrus Marylou S Klein louhawk@att.net

3. Coccoloba Dick Workman coastplan@embarqmail.com

4. Cocoplum Debra Klein greenmansion@comcast.net

5. Conradina Vince Lamb vince@vincelamb.com

6. Cuplet Fern Neta Villalobos-Bell netavb@cﬂ.rr.com

7. Dade Buck Reilly (P) buck@habify.com

8. Eugenia David L. Martin bartramixia@comcast.net

9. Heartland Jennifer Navarra jennifernavarra@gmail.com

10. Hernando Mikel Renner pinery@wildblue.net

11. Ixia Linda Schneider lrs409@comcast.net

12. Lake Beautyberry Jon Pospisil jsp@isp.com

13. Lakela’s Mint Ann Marie Loveridge (P) loveridges@comcast.net

14. Longleaf Pine Amy Hines amy@rustables.com

15. Lyonia Jim Jackson (P) jbjacksondvm@cﬂ.rr.com

16. Magnolia Scott Davis torreyatrekker@gmail.com

17. Mangrove Al Squires ahsquires@embarqmail.com

18. Marion Big Scrub Taryn Evans terevans@comcast.net

19. Naples Aimee Leteux paintedpony175@aol.com

20. Nature Coast Russell Watrous russelljwatrous@yahoo.com

21. Palm Beach Brenda Mills nativesun_99@yahoo.com

22. Pawpaw Sonya H. Guidry guidry.sonya@gmail.com

23. Paynes Prairie Sandi Saurers sandisaurers@yahoo.com

24. Pine Lily Jenny Welch (P) mwelch@cﬂ.rr.com

25. Pinellas Debbie Chayet dchayet@verizon.net

26. Pineywoods James Flegert (P) j_ﬂegert@yahoo.com

27. Sarracenia Jeannie Brodhead jeannieb9345@gmail.com

28. Sea Oats Joan Kramer dafambly@hotmail.com

29. Sea Rocket Paul Schmalzer paul.a.schmalzer@nasa.gov

30. Serenoa Dave Feagles feaglesd@msn.com

31. South Ridge Vacant info@fnps.org

32. Sparkleberry Carol Sullivan csullivan12@windstream.net

33. Sumter Steve Gustafson gorightgus@gmail.com

34. Suncoast Devon Higginbotham archiveproperties@gmail.com

35. Sweet Bay Ina Crawford inacrawford1@gmail.com

36. Tarﬂower Julie Becker jlbecker@cﬂ.rr.com

37. Univ. of Central Florida Vacant info@fnps.org

38. Univ. of Florida Vacant info@fnps.org

(P) = Chapter President

Florida Native Plant Society PO Box 278

Melbourne FL 32902-0278

Phone: (321) 271-6702 info@fnps.org www.fnps.org

To become a member: Contact your local Chapter Representative, call, write, or e-mail FNPS, or join online at www.fnps.org