Treasure Coast Natives

This afternoon was hot!  John and I sweated  90 degrees to sink to our ankles in warm stink-mud near Jensen Beach, Florida to behold a zillion Bladderworts.  The site is about half overpowered with invasive exotic species and about half restored to an intriguing dried pond carpeted with carnivorous yellow Bladderworts.

Bladderworts in the mud.  Photo by John Bradford.

Because we’ve covered these greedy meat eaters previously, let’s turn to the invasive exotic species.  For most of the hundreds of unwelcome escaped plants in Florida it is easy to surmise how they got here:  running away from gardens, or feeding livestock,  or hitchhiking as seeds or spores.    Some pests have have more-interesting histories.

Let’s take a shot at the novel cases, with a disclaimer that just because somebody introduced a species once does not mean nobody else did before or after.   That is impossible to pin down, and records are murky.

Sisal Agave

Sisal is a Category II invasive exotic species looming large in hot dry habitats locally.  It dates back to Florida’s first well documented horticulturist, Dr. Henry Perrine.(1797-1840).   Dr. Perrine had an eventful life, first as  “The Little Hard Riding Doctor” in Illinois, where, oops,  he accidentally drank a bottle of arsenic.   That mishap drove him to Mexico, the toxic damage causing a craving for a warm climate.  In Mexico Perrine  doctored a cholera epidemic, which he caught of course, and yet survived as his second brush with death.

Sisal in Jensen Beach, by JB

In addition to doctoring,  Perrine served as U.S Consul to Mexico, coming under a presidential executive order to ship Mexican crop plants back to the U.S.   He sent them to Indian Key in the Florida Keys, and took a special interest in Agaves, including Sisal, writing a book on the plants.  Sisal was and remains a commercial source of fibers.  To this day Indian Key houses Sisal Agaves, as does much of South Florida.   Perrine retired from Mexico moved to Indian Key to tend his introduction garden, and to be a doctor where one was needed, but never lived to see the literal fruits of his labor, as he suffered “strike three,” death at the hands of angry Indigenous People in 1840, and thus ended Florida’s first botanical garden.

Water Hyacinth

Water Hyacinths are lovely floating plants with spikes of  attractive purple flowers.

All well and good if under control, but Water Hyacinth broke out and conquered Florida waters and beyond, sometimes smothering watery  acres with millions of  itself, clogging waterways and interfering with ecology.   Maybe it should become a biofuel.

Hyacinth to the horizon

How did a bad deed like that get started?  A careless lily pool owner?   No.  Hyacinth Hell traces back to the 1884 New Orleans Cotton Exposition (World’s Fair), where they had a mammoth greenhouse with mind-blowing horticultural exhibits.    Not bad for 1884!    But that is not exactly where the Hyacinth originated.     Each Fair visitor received one as a keepsake, only to go home all over the South and unleash the scourge.   CLICK for cinematic documentation.

Showy Rattlebox

Mirror mirror on the wall, who was the biggest plant introducer of them all?   That is easy, David Fairchild (1869-1954), namesake of Fairchild Tropical Garden in Miami.   No space here for a long biography, so suffice it to say  Fairchild had a penchant for cultivating the rich and famous, and for marrying their daughter.  He was Alexander Graham Bell’s Son in Law, and hob-nobbed with luminaries of the era, oh say Orville Wright for instance.   The opportunities and funding from his VIP connections put Fairchild and his team in a position to travel the world and introduce, via the USDA maybe 200,000 different plants into the U.S.

Showy Rattlebox, by JB

Included in his voluminous records are species of Crotalaria, beautiful yellow-flowered Rattleboxes, species now scattered abundantly in every disturbed site locally.    Some gardeners know Sunn Hemp (yes with double-n) as one example, although it is not commonly escaped in Florida.  A similar, gorgeous species is all over our area, well named “Showy Rattlebox.”    It is so colorful this species must have come as a garden ornamental.  Wrong.

Fairchild and his crew cultivated Showy Rattlebox and related species as companion crops for citrus and other fruit species.   Fairchild thought C. spectabilis dated to around 1920 in his Miami experimental gardens.

Showy Rattlebox nitrogen fixing nodules

Beyond good looks, the species has nitrogen-fixing nodules, as a good legume should.  And willing to prosper unwatered on terrible soil in brutal sun.    Maybe that ability should have been a red flag,  but trouble took time to appear.   In the meantime, Fairchild and others waxed eloquent on the virtues of Showy Rattlebox, not only for nitrogenating fruit crop soils, but also for fighting soil parasitic nematodes attacking Papayas.

Quercus minima

Fagaceae

Today John and I haunted Jonathan Dickinson State Park, near Hobe Sound Florida, finding  the flora abloom, at least in  marshy meadows,  nature’s garden complete with blooming butterworts,  orchids, meadowbeauties, milkworts, sundews, tillandsias, and too much splendor to portray with a list.

Butterwort today.  An insectivorous plant.  All photos today by John Bradford.

The practical mission  is John’s serial  long-term photo record of “what happens after a burn.”

The blaze was about a year ago, and by now the scorched earth lies under fresh green oak boughs.   Oaks resprouted “from scratch” in a year?    Well yes, about a foot tall with no  ambition to rise higher.    These are dwarf live oak, Quercus minima, resurrecting to new life from fireproof subterranean rhizomes.

Quercus minima towering to 9 inches tall.   The first-formed leaves are toothy lobed.

Are dwarf live oaks tiny representatives of the big  live oaks (Q. virginiana) shade trees festooned with Spanish moss across the South?    Almost.   Harvard University botany demigod Charles Sprague Sargent long ago perceptively classified both as extremes of a single species.

Quercus virginiana can be huge and old.

The same question extends to a second locally abundant small oak plausibly interpretable as a variant of big Quercus virginiana.   This is sand live oak, Quercus geminata.   With variation, it is most often a shrub or smalli tree intermediate in size between big virginiana and little  minima.

What is the relationship among the three? Molecular data can settle kinship, whether for  Maury Povich or for curious botanists.    A useful DNA-centered study for today’s tree trio shows  live oak, sand live oak, and dwarf live oak together to comprise one exclusive branch on the oak evolutionary tree.  The three are most closely related to each other than any is to any other oak.    In short, it would be “legit” to see three varieties of one variable species,  or alternatively as three sister species, the latter interpretation prevailing nowadays.

Sand live oak

There is a compelling case for giving each its own species designation.  Chevrolet and Buick are varieties of GM yet have their own “species” identities.   Our three live oaks have diverged from a common origin over time into fairly distinct identities.    Oaks are famous for hybridizing, yet live oak, sand live oak, and dwarf live oak, all living intermixed, seem to have evolved barriers to criss-crossing, although Q. geminata and Q. minima can form a rare hybrid called Q. succulenta.     More prevalent is hybridization by each with distant cousins outside the trio.

The DNA study mentioned above is the 2015 work of botanist Jeannine Cavender-Bares and collaborators.  They noted how our  three live oaks diverge most saliently along lines of response to fire:  Q. virginiana massive, long-lived, sturdy, and intolerant of fire;  sand live oak mid-sized with grudging ability to regrow after fire; and  dwarf live oak dependent on fire.   Maybe it is all about diversification into habitats with different fire patterns.

This looks like a hybrid, maybe, between dwarf live oak and Chapman’s oak.

All that said, there is an asterisk.  Quercus virginiana seedlings make a thick underground tuber before the tree grows into a mighty oak for 500 years.  Should the baby seedling be grazed, burned, or flooded it can resprout from its tuber for a second chance.   Could Quercus minima be sort of an “infantilized” live oak that remains small and took that original fireproof  temporary  “tuber” from its ancestor and expanded upon it?

Dwarf live oak has an odd foliar feature.  The earliest leaves on a branch have lobed toothy margins.  As the branch elongates, however, the younger leaves develop toothless.

Why make a transition like that?  Here is a speculation.  I think teeth and lobes on leaf margins help dissipate heat.  Maybe when the twigs are young and close to the sun-baked Florida sand below the cooling wind, where fire burned away all shade, perhaps the leaves need to shed heat.   Later, as the branches rise into the breeze, and as overhead shade increases during fire recovery, the overheating problem diminishes, making the lobed heat-shedding leaves obsolete.  Only a guess.

You may hope that the Florida legislature provides the funds to buy land for water storage but I know that when I buy a duck stamp the 98 cents of every dollar is mandated to buy wetlands.

Duck stamps are the greatest federal program in existence. 98 cents out of every dollar goes to buy wetlands. That is a Federal mandate. Since 1934, when the program began, it has purchased or leased over 6 million acres of wetland – an area nearly the size of Maryland. Much of this area is now part of the National Wildlife Refuge system. It’s the envy of the world.

Stamps have enabled the purchase of over 2500 acres at the Arthur Marshall refuge and almost 86,000 acres in 6 other refuges in Florida.

And here is the backstory:

In 1934, our country suffered in severe economic depression. Real needs were many; financial resources were slim to non-existent.  At the same time, our abundant natural resources were rapidly disappearing. In an era when hunting still provided the meat on many tables, it seemed there were more hunters than ducks.

As chief of the U.S. Biological Survey, forerunner of today’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, J. N. “Ding” Darling devised a program wherein hunters became stewards of the wildlife they hunted.

“Ding” Darling was most widely known for his editorial cartoons, which appeared in nearly 150 newspapers nationwide and earned him two Pulitzer Prizes.

Although “Ding” earned his living as an editorial cartoonist, his passion was teaching the wise use of the world’s natural resources. Skilled in public speaking, articulate in writing, Darling devoted his special talents to conservation education and to developing programs and institutions which would benefit wildlife.

One of “Ding’s” cartoons

Darling’s Design for the First Federal Duck Stamp~1934 is especially significant to conservation. After he had guided the funding for the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act through Congress, Darling sketched his concept of a suitable image for the First Federal Duck Stamp. With its enthusiastic adoption, a remarkable program of stewardship was born that endures today, more than a half-century later. Here is an image of “Ding” Darlings original stamp:

Not only does the stamp provide the funds to buy and maintain the wetlands it provides a beautiful piece of artwork. Every fall hundreds of painters across the country compete in the Federal Duck Stamp contest, which gives participants a chance to have their paintings featured on the duck stamp of the year. So when you buy the stamp not only are you saving wetlands but you are buying a wonderful piece of art. Here is an image of the current stamp depicting Trumpeter Swans

If you want a great read about the peculiar world of competitive duck painting then pick up a copy of The Wild Chase by Martin J. Smith. This book follows the Federal Duck stamp contest of 2010. If you saw and liked the movie “Best In Show” you will really enjoy this book. Some of the descriptions of the ducks and geese in the 2010 duck stamp contest were hilarious. The Brant, a smallish goose is like a feathered Martha Stuart – they put more down in their nests (for insulation) than any other waterfowl. The Northern Shoveler is Lady Gaga of the wetlands – iridescent green head and neck and really showy plumage. The Ruddy duck is an oddball – a skyblue bill that is just ridiculous. The Ruddy Duck appeared on the stamp in 2016

Another interesting duck is the Red-breasted Merganser who looks like he had his hair styled by Woody Woodpecker.  The bird appeared on the 1994 stamp.

I hope you will consider the purchase of a stamp as part of your conservation effort. Here is a link to the Federal website that contains a lot of duck stamp information: https://www.fws.gov/birds/get-involved/duck-stamp.php

I buy my stamps from the US Post Office and here is that link: https://store.usps.com/store/browse/subcategory.jsp?categoryId=duck-stamps&categoryNavIds=stamp-collectors%3Acollectibles-by-type%3Aduck-stamps

Carya floridana

Juglandaceae

Small Scrub Hickory.  All photos today by John Bradford.

Today John and I botanized  a local coastal hammock remnant, Maggy’s Hammock (aka Rocky Point Hammock)  near Stuart, Florida,  species galore in a square mile.   As tempting as it is to start listing, we better pick one species and stick to it.    The alpha trees are Florida hickories, some with trunks, oh say, a yard in diameter.   Florida hickory is well named, being restricted to Florida, living in high dry  habitats.

They are in full bloom today, although their wind-pollinated flowers are not showy.  The males dangle clustered in spikes called catkins.  The females stand solo.

Flowering twig.  Male flowers in catkins.  One green female flower at the twig tip.

Hidden within, the trees have a secret, phylloxeran galls*.

Huh?

To explain the galls it is necessary to refer to another wonder of Florida nature:    Koreshans.    Phylloxerans  have much in common with Koreshsnas, just on a smaller scale:  they both lived on the inside of their globes.

The Koreshans were a utopian community  a couple generations ago at Estero, Florida, near Ft. Myers.  Their village persists  as a state park.  There’s a ton to tell about them, but to stay on-topic, the important thing is that they lived  inside the globe.   Koreshans knew the rest of humanity had the world-wrongside-out.

:This button may help you see where they lived:

Koreshan Unity button. 19–. Color photoprint. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory. Accessed 3 Mar. 2017.

Today’s phylloxerans are the micro-Koreshans of Maggy’s Hammock.  They live on the inside of their little globose gall the diameter of a grape.    Slice it open…there’s a utopian world within.  Hundreds of tiny Koreshan phylloxerans.

We live inside

OK, cut the crazy crap, what’s a phylloxeran?   They’re kin to aphids, with many species infesting many plants.   They get along famously with grapes and hickories, entailing economic consequences for both.    The most important cultivated hickories are pecans, bothered by phylloxerans.   The pests are more infamous in vineyards, where root-infesting phylloxerans from North America  brought the European wine industry into peril, forcing grafting vines onto imported pest-resistant rootstocks.

See the little rascals inside thei hickory hostel today on our microscopic phylloxeran-cam:

CLICK

They wiggle within a 100% enclosed chamber.  How bizarre.  How did they get in?  A  pregnant female founded the gall.  It formed around her.  She probably died full of viable eggs, populating the gall with siblings.   What’s so great about living in a bubble?    Protection, no doubt.   What is their exit strategy?   Somehow the bugs induce the gall to rupture.   Hold on there:  They can tell the gall to open sesame and make a portal to the infinite universe?  Apparently so.  And it gets weirder:

Phylloxerans can throttle down the plant’s protective chemicals just as the HIV Virus hobbles our human immune system.  Way back the 1890s biologists found phylloxerans to force the host (grapes) to develop extra stomates.  Stomates are little gas exchange valves essential  for photosynthesis.   More stomates = more photosynthesis = more sugar for the tiny lodgers.  We all know it is silly for a parasite to kill its host.   These wise little parasites understand and go a step beyond, helping the  host to help themselves.

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*Galls are growths on plants caused by insects, mites, or fungi.  They are usually larval homes for the arthropod that induced them.

Toxicodendron radicans

(The misnomer “Poison-Oak” is applied sometimes to this species, although in Florida that name is probably best reserved for the close relative Toxicodendron pubescens and relatives in the Western U.S.)

Anacardiaceae, the Cashew Family, many of which can cause dermatitis

Continuing our month-of-Fridays probe into the botany of the Kiplinger Nature Preserve today in perfect weather, John and I found the plant most interestingly in bloom to be poison ivy.    Too bad it is nasty, because the species has a certain charm and fascinating natural history otherwise.

Leaflets 3 let it be.   All photos by brave John Bradford.

Poison Ivy is not “a” species, but rather the most mind-boggling complex of Mother Nature’s messy handiwork you can find.   Anyone who wants to reduce botany to simplistic species and easy rules better first look at this perplexing tangle of variation ranging across much of Asia, North America, and parts of Tropical America, but neither Europe nor Africa.      Different people can look into the complex and see different species, subspecies, varieties, and even different genera,  with our well known eastern Poison Ivy more similar to the same species in Japan than it is to all the numerous variants in the rest of the U.S. and Mexico.   The big ol’ mess was sorted out painstakingly by Michigan State University botanist William Gillis on the shoulders of predecessors.  The late Dr. Gillis and I shared the distinction of our careers intersecting with the only botanist convicted of booking  a hitman to murder his wife.

A good segue into Poison Ivy.  The writing on P.I. as a poison are infinite, so to pick the weirdest aspect of that history  I know of, as documented by Gillis, hereyago:  indigenous men in California used the irritating plants to oppress women.  When the men wanted to meet and keep the women apart, one guy would strip naked, be body painted, and run around all crazy threatening the women with wet poison ivy branches suspended around his head.   Who would volunteer for that job?  The hazards are numerous.  A better use of the plant, despite the itch, was in the Netherlands to reinforce dikes. Worked better than a little boy sticking his finger in the leak.

Would you believe Poison Ivy has a role in ornamental horticulture?    It develops red fall color and contributes to the subtle autumn hues in South Florida.     It has served in that capacity cultivated in gardens in climates where fall color is otherwise deficient.

Poison Ivy has the ability to resurrect dead trees.   The vine climbs hugging the defunct trunk, and way up high decides to branch out like the original limbs on the tree.   From the distance such a tree looks like a very odd species. Here is the vine covering a dead tree in flames. CLICK

We’ve been trying to catch it in bloom, so today was a minor triumph.   The flowers are separately male or female, on distinct plants.    In some locales, the male plants have foliage differing from the females, a weird occurrence.  Why?

Blooming P.I. today 2/17/17

The flowers draw bees, and Poison Ivy honey is not unheard of.   No thank you. The blossoms mature into little “berries” which are not berries; they are related to and resemble mini-mangoes: lopsided, flattened, and with a “stone.”  As the fruits age, the outer layer separates from the stone leaving a hollow space, and the outer layer can crack open along lines.

To wrap up, one more oddity.  Commonly allergic reactions come from proteins.    Poison Ivy causes a horrid allergic reaction yet its toxin is not a protein.   Oh however can that be?  Apparently the plant’s poison, urushiol, binds and alters proteins in human skin, and then those altered self-protein complexes kick off an allergy, sort of a vine-mediated auto-immune disorder.    The itchy oil is almost a varnish.   It can collect in sufficient quantities on the leaves to dry into a black spotty paintjob, a skull and crossbones reminder.   Fact is, the Chinese Lacquer Tree is itself likewise a species of Toxicodendron.