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CELESTIAL LILY

This Florida endemic species is found in wet flatwoods, prairies, marshes and the edges of cabbage palm hammocks of east-central Florida, mostly in the St. Johns River watershed.

Ranging from Putnam and Flagler Counties in the north, extending south to Broward County and west into Pasco County. This endangered species responds well to periodic burning of the habitat.
The violet-blue six tepaled flower only opens for an hour or two in the afternoon during the fall, hence one of the common names is fall-flowering ixia. The elliptic sepals and petals are nearly equal in length, the flowers are 4 cm or more across. There are three yellow anthers with the style divided into six narrow pointed branches. Usualy having a single stem with small well-spaced leaves, some robust plants may be branched. The few grass-like basal leaves can be over 60 cm long.
Similar in appearance to Bartram's ixia, which has flowers with wider more rounded tepals that bloom only in the morning during late spring or early summer in northeast Florida. Also similar to the more widespread blue-eyed grasses that bloom throughout the day during the spring and summer.
Purchase Celestial Lily by Paul Rebmann



INDIAN WOODOATS

An occassional grass of wet hammocks in the central and western panhandle, plus Suwannee and Nassau Counties.

The range covers all of the southeastern United States, extending west into Arizona, northwest only as far as Kansas and Iowa, north to Michigan and Wisconsin and northeast into Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Chasmanthium latifolium reaches a height of one and a half meters, usually half of that is arching over. The lanceolate leaves are alternate and can be up to 2.5 cm wide and 20 cm long. The flattened spikelets of irregular flowers are green, turning to brown and hang in loose branched panicles at the top of the stems from late spring into the fall.
Indian woodoats makes an attractive landscape plant, preferring moist shaded areas, it is tolerant of drought, some salt and spreads rapidly.



WOOD STORK

The range of wood storks extends through the southeastern coastal states from North Carolina to Texas south to the Yucatan peninsula, plus Tennessee, Arizona, California and much of the central and eastern South American continent.

Mycteria americana is possibly extirpated from Texas, imperiled in Florida and Georgia and seriously imperiled in South Carolina.
This is an endangered species of marshes, ponds, lagoons and cypress swamps where they form nesting colonies. In areas where the local population is healthy, they can often be seen in wet roadside ditches.
These large white birds stand three to four feet tall. The distinctive white and black wings span five and a half feet.



DENSE GAYFEATHER

Also known as dense blazing star, this is an occassional plant of sandhills and flatwoods throughout most of Florida.

The range extends from Louisiana to Wisconsin eastward except extreme northeast New England.
Dense gayfeather has a smooth or nearly smooth stem typically a meter tall or more. The many heads of purple florets are sessile in a spikelike raceme. Leaves are alternate, linear, smooth or nearly so and non-cilliate at the base. The lower stem leaves are largest.



COASTALPLAIN BALM

An occasional plant of sandhills from the central Florida panhandle to the upper Suwannee River area, plus Alachua and Duval Counties.

Coastalplain balm also occurs in Georgia.
The robustior variety has a red to bright purple corolla with reddish-brown anthers while the linearifolia variety has white to pale purple corolla and bright yellow anthers. The lighter flower variety is found in the western and north-central panhandle with its Florida range only overlapping the robustior variety in Jackson County.



HUMMINGBIRD CLEARWING MOTH