Summer Farewell - Dalea adenopoda

 

There are two native prairie clovers with the common name of summer farewell and they are very similar to each other.  I've written previously about Dalea pinnata which is found in xeric open uplands throughout north and central Florida.  This summer farewell (D. adenopoda) occurs in similar habitat in the southern half of peninsular Florida - so there is some overlap in their ranges.  The difference lies mostly in the foliage.  In D. adenopoda, the leaves are normally involute - rolled so that the underside of the leaf is exposed and the upper surface is largely hidden.  The leaves also are much smaller - 1-2 mm wide as opposed to 4-6 mm in D. pinnata.  D. adenopoda was formerly considered to be a variety of D. pinnata, but has since been separated into a unique species.

Both species are identified by their bright red buds, their white flowers and their silvery fuzzy seed heads.  As their common names imply, they bloom in late fall and are especially attractive to native pollinators of all kinds.  Although these are considered to be perennials, I've never had them persist long in a landscape setting.  Sow the seed in exceptionally well-drained soil and transfer the seedlings when small into scrub-/sandhill-type sandy soil in full sun.

The top 3 photos are mine and copied from the Florida Plant Atlas managed by the Institute for Systematic Botany (ISB) at the University of South Florida.  The bottom photo was taken on 30 November at the Lake Wales Ridge State Forest in Polk County.

Bridges’ and Orzell’s bluecurls - Trichostema bridgesii-orzellii

 

In 2025, Alan Weakley published a revision to the taxonomy of the ubiquitous perennial mint, blue curls (Trichostema spp.).  Prior to this, all blue curls native to Florida were lumped together under 1 species, T. dichotomom.  The new revision separated this species into seven - one being the endemic Bridges' and Orzell's blue curls which is also known as the Lake Wales Ridge blue curls, T. bridgesii-orzellii.  As this latter common name implies, this species is restricted to sand pine scrub, sandhills and scrubby flatwoods on and adjacent to the Lake Wales and Winter Haven Ridges.

There are generally only subtle differences between this species and others - especially T. suffrutescens - scrub blue curls.  In both species, the buds are purple-black to dark blue purple, the corolla is dark blue or blue-purple to blue or blue-purple, and the anthers are dark blue or blue-purple to blue or blue-purple. There are differences in their growth form as scrub blue curls tends to be less than 3 feet tall and branches often near its base while Lake Wales Ridge blue curls grows to 3 feet and does not significantly branch near the base.  In their publication  Dr. Kevan Schoonover McClelland, Elon University, Dr. Alan Weakley, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and graduate student Derick Poindexter, University of Carolina-Chapel Hill, published in the journal Phytotaxa, describe differences in the odor of the foliage. I do not have that experience.

The photos above were taken on 30 November by me at the Lake Wales Ridge State Forest in Polk County.