tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615802895251532423.post8577939799665339976..comments2024-03-27T03:14:31.886-07:00Comments on Native Florida Wildflowers: False Indigo - Amorpha fruticosaHawthorn Hillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10879920186201900051noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3615802895251532423.post-75286174816664677842012-04-12T22:39:37.232-07:002012-04-12T22:39:37.232-07:00Hi Craig; I love your site! Thank you for providin...Hi Craig; I love your site! Thank you for providing yet another helpful tool for self-educating native plant enthusiasts like me! My husband and I have been "fans" of yours since you were the Urban forester for Pinellas County (I called you a thousand years ago - really around 2-3 decades ago - about a lovely square-stemmed pink flowering "weed" taking over my Grandmother's rose garden - it turned out to be Stachys floridana, and you humorously suggested that I "control" the "betony" by learning to like the taste of it, and gradually "harvesting and eating it out of the rose garden." I pretty much abandoned "formal" gardening shortly therafter (in my early twenties) and have cultivated natives and permaculture landscapes ever since (I'm now in my late forties). <br />Regarding your page on Amorpha fruticosa: I have noticed it growing along a fence line of a state-owned scrub parcel, along side Vaccinium arboreum, Lyonia ferruginea, Lonicera sempervirens, smilax, a variety of scrub oaks, etc. in a fairly typical coastal scrub habitat, complete with Gopher Tortoise burrows, sand pine, Osmanthus, Asimina, typical white sandy soils, but no rosemary) - NOT a wetland, but down slope from a Sandhill to its east, and uphill from a springs coast forested wetlands to its northwest. The parcel has lithic scatter and other plants that "former" populations would have considered medicinal or useful. My "subject" has typical deep purple-indigo flowers. It's under a powerline; so perhaps "bird planted," but still, robust and thriving (subject in bloom today was substantially taller than my 5'2" self) in what most would consider "upland" habitat. Most Florida botanical references list Amorpha fruticosa as FACW (a wetland species). I noticed that you also have found A. fruticosa to be highly adaptable to dry soils and persistent droughty periods (like the one we're presently suffering). Perhaps the "gods of botany" might consider moving it to "FAC?"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com