In January of 2011, I ceased posting to this blog and began posting instead to a second blog, “On
Rappel!” I listed my reasons then, but they sound irrelevant to me now
based on recent observations and conclusions. My guess is that about half my
readership is composed of cavers, and that they probably don’t really care
about non-caving blog posts. Likewise, I suspect non-cavers prefer not to
search through caving posts for stuff about paddling or hiking. It strikes me
that perhaps I should maintain two blogs, one for caving and one for non-caving.
So, with that introduction, I’ll start the New Year for Florida Nature
Adventures with the tale of my latest botanizing trip to find rare Florida ferns.
A few weeks ago, my friend “John” emailed to tell me that a
fern aficionado from Spain planned to visit Florida to photograph rare ferns.
Alan knew of some neat places containing uncommon ferns, and sent Jose
(and me) a map that depicted a couple of locations to visit. John could not accompany
Jose as he was planning his own adventure for the same time period. My own
ability to identify ferns is embarrassingly primitive, especially with the
genera Thelypteris and Asplenium. Since both genera contain
species that were on Jose’s bucket list, I could not pass up the
opportunity to have an identification expert teach me a thing or two. You can
see the quality of Jose’s fern photography at his web site: joseluisperezcalo.com/index.html.
Early on Thursday, January 17, Jose met another person
who showed him a population of Blechnum
occidentale, a fairly rare fern in the US. A little later, he and I met at a
parking lot for our first jaunt out into a vast low hammock somewhere along
Florida’s western peninsular karstlands (it is a given that I cannot reveal
online the locations of these rare taxa). We struck out through the woods
toward John’s first waypoint through low hammock, a humid and diverse
subtropical forestland dominated by live oak and other hardwoods.
Gentle rain accompanied us on this and the other jaunt of the day, but we were
prepared with rain gear. Along the way to our first waypoint, we spotted Osmunda regalis, Phlebodium aureum, Vittaria
lineata, Thelypteris palustris, Thelypteris ovata, and Polypodium polypodioides, all of which are common Florida species.
Here’s a pic of new Vittaria sprouts growing from the base of a cabbage palm:
And a pic of the most abundant fern of the day, Thelypteris ovata:
Reaching our first station, we saw numerous limestone
rocks and boulders lying about on the surface, most of which were spotted or
covered with ferns and bryophyte mosses. The commonest ferns on the rocks were Thelypteris ovata, Thelypteris dentata, and Thelypteris
tetragona, among which we spotted
our real quarries. The first was Pecluma dispersa:
Then we spied Asplenium
abcissum:
The latter three are fairly rare in Florida. Unfortunately,
there was also a small patch of Boston fern, Nephrolepis exaltata, which is a dreaded invasive exotic. The only
taxon that we didn’t see here that was expected was Trichomanes, a genus of tiny ferns whose foliage is only two cells
thick. We hoped to find it at the second waypoint that John had given us, but
we found no new species at the second site although we did add Pteridium aquilinum pseudocaudatum to
the day’s fern list.
From there we drove a while to a restaurant serving
frozen broiled grouper and a decent steak, and then continued on to our
campsite where we spent the night in our vehicles. The next morning we arose a
little after dawn to the screaming of a pair of red-tailed hawks. I had decided
to take Jose canoeing to a site that John also knows about and had suggested in
case we had time to do it. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring a few things.
Without going thru the entire litany, I’ll just say that one item forgotten was
the second paddle. But I had a shovel. Did you know that a shovel propels a
canoe just fine? Did you know that you can scull with a shovel? But do you know
how much heavier a shovel is than a paddle? Too, the current and chill wind were against us going to the next site, but what a nice and easy laze it was floating
back! It should be noted that this was the first canoe trip Jose ever took in
his life, and let it be known that he is a “natural” at it. Here he is at the
bow of the canoe:
Our third site is a pedestal of limestone
within a wetland, and nearly all its exposed rock is covered with primitive
plants. This bryophyte shows its primitive leafy contribution to the evolution
of vascular plants:
This habitat supports low hammock vegetation dominated by
Shumard oak and Southern magnolia, with an admixture of cabbage palm, live oak, diamondleaf
oak, Southern red cedar, and others. The ferns here are also dominated by Thelypteris ovata, while Thelypteris dentata and Thelypteris tetragona are common. Here
we found Pecluma dispersa again, but
also found Pecluma ptilodon var. bourgeauana. Below is a shot of the base
of the latter taxon, showing its basal pennae in their characteristic shape and
configuration:
More Asplenium abcissum was found here, along
with Asplenium cristata. A single specimen of
possibly Thelypteris reptans was
spotted:
We also found a single specimen of Dryopteris ludoviciana, which was a new species for Jose.
The last time I was at this location, I spotted a single
individual plant of Pteris cretica, a
Southeastern Asian species commonly found around the world as a house plant, but on this
occasion, I saw several dozen individual plants. I don’t know if it is
considered an invasive species, but it is doing quite well in this little
corner of Florida. However, it does not appear to be “taking over,” but instead
blending into the fern community and adding to its species richness:
I had taken Jose to this location specifically to find Asplenium heterocroum, which I thought
occurred here, but all the plants I had identified as such turned out to be Asplenium trichomanes. That was
fine for me, though, it being a life fern, but I think Jose was a little
disappointed. He certainly jumped at the chance to visit a fourth site where
John and I had previously found and photographed Asplenium heterocroum.
So, we returned to the canoe to paddle back to the boat
ramp. Along the way, we saw a Northern Flicker, which was a life bird for Jose
and a species that I see only once a year or two. Then, right in front of the
canoe was a river otter! The shoreline trees harbored many Black Vultures that
were too lazy to wing off into the cold wind, instead letting their Turkey
Vulture cousins be the early birds. A Belted Kingfisher flew rapidly toward us,
chattering loudly, and landed on a branch only a few feet from the boat.
Usually, they won’t get anywhere near canoeists. I have always admired the
robustness of aquatic mosses, so was glad Jose pointed out the name of the
common bryophyte pictured below as water willow, Fontinalis sp.:
Back at the boat ramp Jose pointed out Thelypteris kunthii.We drove to a friend’s house and struck off a fourth time
together through the woods, this time to a mesic hammock I have visited a
hundred times before. I strode straightaway to a limestone outcropping I knew
of, and there, among the very common Asplenium
platyneuron plants, was the prize of the day, Asplenium heterocroum:
I had a great time counting 20 kinds of ferns over the
two days, and I wish Jose the best of luck on the rest of his ‘fernatics’ vacation.
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