Hairy Clustervine - Jacquemontia tamnifolia

Hairy clustervine (Jacquemontia tamnifolia) is a pioneer species most likely to be found in disturbed sites nearly anywhere in Florida. It also occurs throughout the Southeast and north to the southern Midwest.  This is a sprawling annual vine, likely to root at regular intervals where it comes into contact with bare soil.

Plants emerge in early spring and grow quickly.  It sometimes masses into clumps that can reach several feet across and more than 1 foot tall.  It also sends runners out in all directions, each up to 12 feet long.  As those stems root, they form additional clumps. The foliage is heart shaped. Each leaf is about 1 inch across and 2 inches long. 

Flowering occurs during the summer. Clusters of buds form on the stems at the axils of the leaves. From these, sky-blue flowers open - a few at a time each day for several weeks.  As this is a morning glory, the blooms do not last long; never more than a single day.  Eventually, the pollinated flowers form small capsules, and the clusters of these take on a somewhat fuzzy appearance.

Hairy clustervine produces beautiful flowers, but the plant's somewhat weedy appearance and its definite weedy nature do not lend itself well to cultivation in a home landscape, and because it is an annual it would only prosper in settings where some disturbance or bare soil was present. I do not recommend it for a mixed wildflower garcen, even on a trellis. Other, less weedy clustervines, are grown commercially and are better behaved.

Skyblue Clustervine - Jacquemontia pentanthos

Skyblue clustervine (Jacquemontia pentanthos) is a south Florida native, naturally found only in Collier, Miami-Dade, Monroe, and Broward Counties.  It is not a Florida endemic, however, because it is also found in the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and Hawaii.  In Florida, it is listed as a state endangered species. 

This is a species of lower elevation, moist habitats - hammock and wetland edges, and it performs much better as a landscape specimen when given ample moisture.  It can withstand extended drought, but eventually declines under such conditions. It also cannot withstand extended periods of inundation.  As a coastal plant, it has some salt tolerance, but it is not a coastal dune plant and is not the best choice for such conditions.

Skyblue clustervine is a sprawling herbaceous evergreen vine.  The multiple stems coil upwards on adjacent vegetation (or trellises) and may reach lengths of 6-10 feet.  Older stems become somewhat woody, but remain thin.  The leaves are oval and heart shaped, with deep veins.

Flowering occurs mostly in the winter months, but can occur at any time.  Large numbers of sky-blue flowers are produced in the leaf axils. As this is a member of the moring glory family, each flower opens in the morning, but they remain open throughout the day and may be pollinated by sphinx moths active around dusk (according to Roger Hammer).  Individual plants can have hundreds of flowers open at one time and are spectacular when they do.

Although quite rare in Florida naturally, skyblue clustervine is widely propagated by commercial nurseries.  In the landscape, it is relatively easy to maintain and it makes a wonderful wildflower on a trellis or fence. It is cold sensitive, so don't attempt it too far north of its natural range. Give it good moisture and plenty of sun.  It also is not long lived.  Thankfully, if it dies, it is not impossible to replace it with another plant.

Woody Goldenrod - Chrysoma pauciflosculosa

 

Woody goldenrod (Chrysoma pauciflosculosa) is the sole member of this genus. It is not a true goldenrod (Solidago spp.,), but a sub-shrub in the aster family with golden yellow flowers that look a bit like those of the goldenrrods. It is found only in the western half of the Panhandle, in xeric uplands near the coast and in sandhills and scrubs, and outside Florida from Mississippi to North Carolina in ximilar habitats.  It is endangered in North Carolina.

Woody goldenrod is an evergreen perennial that stands about 2-3 feet tall.  It produces many thin woody stems and assumes a very rounded aspect at maturity.  The foliage is mostly confined to the ends of each stem. The leaves are elliptical and bluish green in color. There are no teeth along the margins and they alternate along the stem.  The underside of each leaf is wooly, an adaptation to prevent water loss.

Flowering occurs in late fall.  Hundreds of flower heads are formed at the crown of each plant. These heads are produced on stalks that stand an additional 1-2 feeet above the foliage. The ray petals of each are a light lemon yellow. Mature plants in flull bloom are quite spectacular, and like other asters, they attract a large diversity of pollinating insects.

This species prefers full sun and excellent drainage and has high tolerance of salt spray.  This makes it an excellent choice for beach dunes and sandhill/scrub settings. But, despite its charm, woody goldenrod is only infrequently available to the home landscaper through commercial native plant nurseries.  We have collected seed from a sandhill site in Washington County and hope to have seedlings available by late spring 2013.  Should they prosper, we will also experiment with it in our Pinellas County landscape as well. 

Beach Morning Glory - Ipomoea imperati

Beach morning glory (Ipomoea imperati) is the "other" native morning glory in Florida, common to beach dunes (the other being railroad vine, I. pes-caprae). Beach morning glory is found in coastal counties primarily along the Atlantic coast and the Panhandle.  It only occurs sporadically on the west coast, but is common in Pinellas County where I reside.  This coastal morning glory also is found up the Atlantic Coast to the Carolinas (though it may have been extirpated from North Carolina) and along the Gulf Coast to Mexico and beyond.

Beach morning glory is easy to distinguish from railroad vine, even when flowers are not present.  Though it has the same identical ability to ramble widely across the dunes, its foliage is almost arrow-shaped and definitely not cloven.  This is an evergreen perennial.

Like other members of this genus, flowering occurs in the morning hours and the blooms begin to wilt by mid-day.  The flowers are a brilliant white in color with a lemon-yellow throat.  On a white sand background, the beauty of these petals gets a bit lost, but well-grown specimens are especially attractive. Flowers are produced in every month if temperatures do not dip below freezing.

Beach morning glory is widely propagated by commercial nurseries, but is best used in beach dune restoration plantings.  In a typical landscape, it is impossible to control and will spread in all directions for up to 20 feet.  On a beach dune, however, it can run free and will provide invaluable services in stabilizing beach sands.

Railroad Vine - Ipomoea pes-caprae

Railroad vine (Ipomoea pes-caprae) is one of two morning glories common to Florida's beach dunes.  It is common to the coastal counties of central and southern Florida, but occurs only sporadically in coastal Panhandle ones.  This is essentially a tropical/subtropical species and it is found on the dunes of southern Georgia and along the Gulf of Mexico to Mexico southward.  It also is distributed throughout much of the tropical world - it is found in Hawaii, for example, where Roger Hammer reports the plant was used by native peoples since ancient times.

This is an evergreen perennial renowned for its durability and ability to stabilize dune sands.  Railroad vine rambles great distances over the surface of the open sand.  It withstands being buried periodically by the shifting soils, then re-emerging to take off across the surface once more.  The stems and leaves are succulent and covered with a thick cuticle that helps it prevent water loss in this exceedingly inhospitable environment.  The leaves are rounded with a noticeable notch at the apex. This cloven appearance is what gives it its Latin name which means "goat's foot."

Railroad vine produces large rose-pink flowers throughout the year, if temperatures do not get too cold.  Like other members of this family, each flower opens only in the morning for one day, but plants bloom profusely and have multiple flowers every day. If you get to the beach too late, you simply have to return the next morning. 

Because of its durability and beauty, railroad vine is offered for sale by a number of commercial nurseries devoted to native plants.  It is a wonderful plant for beach dune plantings, but a very difficult one for typical landscape settings.  Once, in my early naive years, I was involved in a native plant parking lot planting design.  The railroad vine we used soon escaped the medians and took off across the blacktop - where it was a major nuisance.  This plant can send runners in all directions, up to 20 feet long.  Be careful where you plant it, but if you have a coastal setting where it can ramble and stabilize your dune, use it liberally.

 

Corn Snakeroot - Eryngium aquaticum

Corn snakeroot (Eryngium aquaticum) is the most robust member of this carrot-family genus in Florida. Its distribution is rather scattered within the state; it is found in most of the counties that lie along the Gulf to west-central Florida, and in various other counties within that general latitude.  It is not found south of the line from Manatee to Indian River Counties.  It also occurs along the Gulf Coast from Mississippi and up the Eastern Seaboard to New York.  Throughout this range, it is confined to wet sunny habitats such as freshwater marshes.  There is some discrepency in the literature regarding its lifestyle - many report it to be a biennial (like many carrots), but my personal experience in Florida is that it behaves more like a short-lived perennial.  Regardless, this is a species that does not persist long in the landscape even when given good growing conditions.

Corn snakeroot maintains a basal rosette of leaves through the winter in Florida.  These leaves are grasslike, about 1/4 inch wide and up to 6 inches long.  The margins do not have teeth or spines as they do in many other species in this genus.

Flower stalks emerge from the center of the rosette in early summer and reach their mature height of 2-3 feet by late summer.  The stalks produce multiple branches near the top and a large rounded flower head is produced at the top of each. Like other species in this genus, each head is subtended by toothed bracts and each flower head appears spiny.  What sets this species apart from others is that the heads are about 1/2 inch across and the flowers are normally a rich cornflower blue.  Though a few other Eryngiums have blue flowers, their heads are tiny in comparison.

The flowers attract a wide variety of pollinators and maintain their showy appearance for several weeks.  The foliage, however, is not used by the caterpillars of eastern black swallowtail butterflies though it is sometimes marketed that way.  A few Eryngiums are useful larval plants for this butterfly, but corn snakeroot is not. 

Because of its beauty, corn snakeroot is often grown commercially in Florida and made available to the home gardener.  It is not an easy plant, however, to provide for.  For one, it is not forgiving of droughty conditions.  Over the years, a great many of my plants have succumbed to soils that have been allowed to dry out for more than just a few days.  I have learned to keep it in spots that do not dry out and that stay wet to extremely moist during much of the year.  It also does not survive long, even under optimum growing conditions.  This is a plant that either needs to reseed to persist or be replanted every couple of years.  I have not had great success getting it to reseed, so I purchase new plants from time to time. I find the effort worth the trouble because corn snake root, in flower, is a spectacular wildflower. 

 

Seminole False Foxglove - Agalinis filifolia



Seminole false foxglove (Agalinis filifolia) `is one of sixteen closely related species in Florida.  I find them difficult to distinguish from each other, but the type of habitat you locate them in helps to narrow down the possibilties a bit.  This one occurs in well-drained sandy uplands - sandhills, coastal scrub, and xeric woodlands.  Seminole false foxglove is found statewide in appropriate habitats, but is a near endemic as its only other occurrences are to states immediately adjacent to us - Georgia and Alabama.
False foxgloves are members of the Broomrape Family; as such they are root parasites to varying degrees on their neighbors.  They also are annuals.  Seminole false foxglove emerges in the spring and reaches its mature size by late summer.  Many stems arise from an underground rhizome; each is partially erect and stands about 3 feet above ground.  A mature plant spreads in all directions and may reach a circumference of 6 or more feet.  Each stem is thin and clothed in small, needlelike leaves.  Therefore, it does not shade out its neighbors, though it drapes many of them.
Blooming occurs in fall. The flowers resemble true foxgloves in shape, but they are a deep pink in color with darker spots inside the corolla.  In this species, the outer petals have a conspicuous fringe - tiny "hairs" that make them look a bit shaggy. The blooms attract a wide variety of pollinators. Pictured above is a green metallic bee (Halictid Family). False foxgloves also serve as a larval food for comon buckeye butterfly caterpillars - pictured below.
Though Seminole false foxglove is an adaptable plant to normal landscape conditions, has beauty in its blooms, and value in the butterfly garden, they have (as a genus) never been offered for sale by any of the nurseries affiliated with FANN - the Florida Association of Native Nurseries.  Their annual nature makes them a difficult group to maintain in a landscape and their sprawling habit reduces the aesthetics of the plant - until they bloom.  This species, and its relatives, are best admired in the wild in fall. And, when you encounter one, look for buckeye butterflies.  They are almost always nearby.