Letter from the FNPS President
Eugene Kelly
The Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida recently
wrapped up the Critical Lands and Waters Identification Project,
otherwise known as CLIP. The ultimate aim of CLIP was to develop a
statewide geographic database that could be used by state and regional
agencies to identify lands and waters with significant natural resource
values. CLIP promises to be a useful tool for identifying lands that
should be conserved through either land acquisition or the application
of innovative approaches to development. The Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission will be using CLIP to prepare their Cooperative
Conservation Blueprint – a top priority in their comprehensive approach
to protecting Florida's wildlife.
CLIP Data can be displayed on a map at this website. Visit the website - click here.
The CLIP database can also be of tremendous value to an organization
like FNPS as we work to advance our own mission. Executive Director
Karina Veaudry recently represented FNPS in a process administered by
the East-Central Florida Regional Planning Council (ECFRPC) to determine
how the region will identify Natural Resources of Regional Significance
across a seven-county area. That, in turn, will help guide the future
direction of growth and development across the entire region.
The ECFRPC had proposed using the "Strategic Habitat Conservation
Areas" (SHCA) data, which identifies important habitat for only a small
handful of vertebrate wildlife species, to distinguish significant
habitat for all the region's native flora and fauna. The SHCA were
appropriate data to use for such a project, of course, but could do
little to ensure that habitat critical for native plants would receive
appropriate consideration as the region and its county and municipal
governments plotted the future direction of growth.
Karina stressed the importance of using the "Rare Species Habitat
Conservation Priorities" (RSHCP) data that was compiled by the Florida
Natural Areas Inventory and accepted by the Century Commission as a
primary CLIP dataset. The RSHCP data distinguishes habitat for 247
native species – 142 of which are rare plant species! Used in
combination with the SHCA data, it provides a much more comprehensive,
balanced approach to identifying Natural Resources of Regional
Significance. The ECFRPC recently notified Karina they have accepted the
FNPS recommendation and will use the RSHCP data.
This encouraging example clearly illustrates how the CLIP database
can be used as a tool by FNPS to support our mission. There are similar
regional planning efforts now underway in other parts of the state,
including Northeast Florida and the "Heartland" region that extends
southward from Polk County through Okeechobee and Hendry Counties.
In order for FNPS to make effective use of the CLIP database, our
local chapters and membership should become familiar with it and promote
its use to guide decision making at the state and regional levels. You
can learn more about CLIP by visiting the Century Commission's website
at centurycommission.org, where you can download the latest
CLIP report.
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Gardening with Native Plants
by Candy Weller
Most of us who are beguiled with Florida eventually plant our
favorite, yet suitable, native plants in our yards. Many others of us
come to the Native Plant Society to find out what to put in our yards.
Why do we do it? Because the appropriate native plant in the proper
place is pest-resistant, disease-resistant, drought-tolerant and
dynamic. Gardening is about walking around the yard and admiring our
efforts. It is about ambiance. A garden is an ever-changing, seasonal
place. We are told the time of year or the time of day by our gardens.
The butterflies, birds, flowers and insects tell us it is so.
Gardening with native plants is about knowing. It is knowing what you
have, what it does, how it can be used, why it is here. It is about
appreciating what this area has to offer. It is learning of the beauty,
the use and the necessity of plants that admit life.
Gardening with native plants is not about miles and miles of
homogenous landscapes. It is not about hiring people with tractors,
mowers, weed-whackers, blowers, edgers and hedge trimmers. It is not
about watering just because it is allowed. It is not about monthly
services for chemicals. It is not about the money, chemicals and
fertilizer going down the drain, or in our area, down the bay.
Gardening with native plants is about this: our part of the world,
and that what we do in our yards impacts the entire region.
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Field Trip Protocol, or
Time for a Little Sole Searching!
From the Pacific Invasives Learning Network Field Trip Protocol
Organizing a conference, an international meeting or a local field
trip? Make sure you and your participants don’t introduce new invasive
species, or take any home with them.
Invasive species – whether plants, insects or other critters, or
fungi – can spread accidentally by seeds or microorganisms getting stuck
to, or caught in, clothes, shoes and equipment. Small invertebrates
(especially their eggs) can be caught in mud, folds of clothes, crevices
in shoes and equipment. Pathogens, like fungi, can be soil-borne on
shoes.
Before and after you visit a site, clean your shoes (soles, laces,
velcro); check your clothes for seeds; examine your bag or rucksack and
any equipment you carry, particularly fastenings, nets, or fishing gear,
where seeds and invertebrates can be easily trapped and transported.
If you are planning to take food into a new site, take nothing with
seeds – no tomato, cucumber, apple, citrus, or muesli bars – as any food
which falls or is left behind could have seeds which germinate and cause
problems in the future. Also, don’t drive a vehicle from an infested
site to a natural area.
If you are traveling for your field trip, another before and after
step is to place all the clothes, shoes and equipment you are planning
to take into the field with you in an airtight bag, spray inside with a
commercial pyrethroid insecticide, tie the bag up tightly and leave it
overnight.
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Support FNPS by Shopping
Cindy Liberton
With the holiday season approaching, you can automatically give to FNPS
as you buy gifts for loved ones. FNPS is now registered with both
GoodSearch and GoodShop. Whenever you use either, money goes to the
Society. Merchants listed online with GoodShop donate a variable percentage of each purchase, and each time you use the GoodSearch engine, a penny or two goes into Society coffers.
It’s extremely easy to use. Just go to www.goodsearch.com and follow
the step-by-step instructions to select your charity (FNPS!).
Restoration Horticulture Degree
The University of Florida now offers a degree in
Restoration
Horticulture. Coursework includes botany, ecology and management,
ecosystem restoration, plant establishment, plant physiology and
pathology, plant propagation, soil and water science.
This is a huge
step forward to ensure that there are people being trained for future
conservation and restoration job positions in Florida.
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Florida Bird Conservation Initiative
Elena Sachs
Several organizations and agencies in Florida are helping to develop
a new program called the Florida Bird Conservation Initiative (FBCI). We
have recently launched our website and welcome you to visit:
http://www.myfwc.com/FBCI/FBCI_index.htm (Ed. Note: If you
click Cancel at the first request for name and password, you can still
see the article; not sure what you do after that...)
The FBCI website is meant to serve as a clearinghouse of information
on bird conservation in Florida. Please be sure to stop by the
“Projects” page on the site and take a few minutes to enter your avian
projects into our project database. This database will be a searchable
and comprehensive snapshot of avian research going on in Florida. The
website will always be a work in progress and we encourage any input to
improve it. Please review the site and send in any additional
information that you think should be included.
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Species Spotlight
Prickly-ash: A Cure for Toothaches and More
Zanthoxylum
clava-herculis
RUTACEAE
E.K. Sommer
If you have ever inadvertently grabbed onto Zanthoxylum clava-herculis
while walking in the woods, you are probably clear about the common
names for this small tree: southern prickly-ash or Hercules club (among
others, such as toothache tree). Found throughout Florida, Z. clava-herculis prefers sandy hammocks, but can be found in dunes and
alongside roads.
Hercules club and Z. americanum (northern prickly-ash) share similar
ethnobotanical uses. Note that Hercules club is also a common name
ascribed to Aralia spinosa or devil's walking stick, most likely due to
the thorns along the trunk.
The sharp thorns on Z. clava-herculis emerge
from short fat growths on the trunk, branches, twigs, and even the
leaves of this deciduous native. Pinnately compound, alternate leaves
are subtly serrated, and when crushed two glands emit a citrus-like
fragrance – not surprising for a member of the Rutaceae family (Citrus).
Small greenish-yellow flowers form on cymes at the leaf axils or
terminal ends and appear after the leaves; on Z. americanum the flowers
appear before the plant leafs out.
Considered a stimulant and
restorative, prickly-ash bark was traditionally used for numerous
medical conditions including chronic rheumatism, indigestion, dysentery,
lung issues, colds and coughs, and skin conditions. The bark is warming
and highly astringent, producing large amounts of saliva when chewed.
Perhaps the most common and widespread use of Zanthoxylum bark is for
toothaches. Eclectic practitioners (late 1800s) also used the bark to
treat cholera and typhus epidemics.
The berries are considered more
potent than the bark, and a berry tea treated sore throats and
indigestion. Recent studies show the presence of berberine, which may
signal antibacterial properties.
As a circulatory stimulant, prickly-ash
is often used in herbal formulas to transport and promote absorption of
other herbs. The taste of prickly-ash is not for everyone, but as a
minor part of an herbal formula, it is palatable.
Before eating or using
plants, remember to carefully identify them and check your sensitivity.
If you are not confident in either your self-diagnosis or choice of
remedies, consult a person knowledgeable in foraging or herbal medicine.
Giant Swallowtail - Papilio cresphontes Linda Cooper
 
Giant Swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes) appears to be two
different butterflies, depending on whether seen from the top or from
underneath. The top wings are dark with a wide yellow band near the wing
edges and crossed with a wide yellow band across the forewings. The
bottom wings are a buttery yellow with a blue band and red spots.
This is the swallowtail that feeds on plants in the Rutaceae family:
cultivated citrus, Wild Lime (Zanthoxylum fagara), Wafer Ash (Ptelea
trifoliata) and Hercules-club (Zanthoxylum clava-herculis).
Caterpillars are called “orange dogs.” They resemble bird droppings
and, like many swallowtails, emit a foul-smelling odor when disturbed.
This is a butterfly that is easy to attract to backyard gardens because
at least one of its host plants can be found statewide. It flies all
year in Florida and ranges west to Texas, north to the Great Lakes and
east through Virginia.
Ed. Note: Check out Linda’s
web site;
click her name from the members list on the Members Page, and on her page,
browse through the menu bar at the top.
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Society News
BOD October Meeting Notes
- A few notes from the meeting minutes by Christina Curanowski, Secretary FNPS
- Our President, Gene Kelly, accepted an invitation to become a
delegate committee member to represent FNPS on the Century Commission
Water Congress (The Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida was
established by the Florida Legislature in 2005 to answer questions
relating to the impacts from population growth that include problems
dealing with water). Our Executive Director has been representing FNPS
on the CLIP council; also, she has posted her Quarterly report on the
FNPS Forum.
- The accounting issue that kept us from participating in EarthShare in
2008 has been corrected and FNPS will be eligible in 2009. In the
meantime, FNPS has joined GoodSearch, another sourcepoint for receiving
donations. Also, the FNPS website donation feature is up and running.
The FNPS Annual Budget is to be posted on the Forum this month.
- Chapters have choices for tax exemption status; get with Executive
Director for information on this.
- The Conference committee reported that the schedule is finalized and
the web information should be posted by January.
- Kari Ruder is the new Education Chair, and she has posted the
committee’s goals and objectives on the Forum.
- Volunteers are still needed to fill positions for Conference Website
Manager, Merchandizing, and Membership Vice-Chair.
- Native Florida Consulting, Inc., was reimbursed $6343.75 for
completing the Urban & Community Forestry Grant. Also, the Executive
Director’s contract was amended to more closely reflect her actual
time/task allotments.
- The board meeting and retreat in January is to focus on strategic
planning. The President and Executive Director will compile and organize
past visioning session ideas and send them to the BOD to review before
the retreat.
- There was a discussion of several policy and legislative issues,
including how FNPS should be addressing the issues of biofuels, and
greater protections for listed plants.
Click here to for the full meeting
minutes. Also, If you are interested in furthering the mission of the Florida Native
Plant Society by assisting with needed organizational duties,
please contact Karina Veaudry at executivedirector@fnps.org or
321-388-4781.
FNPS Travels - July 2009
Check out the 10-day trip organized for FNPS members to Nicaragua,
July 16 through 28, 2009! Jodi Slapinski was our organizer. Click
here to
see itinerary and pictures (large file, be patient!).
Working with Latin American Adventures LLC, four guides with expert
knowledge of Nicaragua’s flora and fauna are scheduled to lead the
group. From rainforests and cloud forests to tropical dry forest, from
wetlands to crater lake, you’ll be walking, boating, swimming,
learning...
The trip is limited to 20 people, on a first come, first served
basis. For questions, contact Elston Raimundo Chavarria at (954)
662-1539 or email your questions to
raimundochavarria@yahoo.com.
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FNPS Land Management Partners Needed
FNPS Land Management Partners (LMP) subcommittee is soliciting a
representative from each chapter. The LMP chapter representative would
serve as the local contact person and distribute information about
upcoming public land management reviews in their region to their FNPS
chapter. Please contact Anne Cox (annecox@bellsouth.net) or Daphne
Lambright (dlambrig@tampabay.rr.com), for more information.
FNPS Board of Directors
Upcoming Meetings
January 9-11, 2009 - Friday evening through Sunday afternoon
retreat; Camp Kulaqua, High Springs. In addition to its regular meeting, the BOD will be analyzing and visioning toward
creating a three-year strategic plan for FNPS.
Visit the website at www.fnps.org close to the meeting dates for
details. From the menu, choose Member Services --> Society
Coordination --> Society Calendar.
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Chapter Resources
Chapter Tips & Tricks
To jazz up your Chapter meeting plant raffles, prepare and maintain
a stock of small note cards preprinted with various individual plant
descriptions and horticultural care notes. Attach the relevant card to
the plants at hand while you introduce the raffle selection at the
beginning of the meeting. Members then have a "tag" to review the names
of the plants later and the plant goes home with someone who has better
information for its care.
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