Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Land of Flowers 4

This is a post designed to be a plant quiz for Scott, but any other help would be appreciated. I'll try and give as much information as I can. Even tips to a genus are useful. Some identified or half identified flowers were thrown in for good measure.
This attractive flower was growing in the dry sand and sunny banks of Lake Okeechobee. It was completely prostrate. I think it might be Tribulus cistoides or Punctureweed.

This interesting flower was growing in saturated soil in wetlands and in upland areas within a sunny power corridor in Levy County. It might be Aletris obovata, which would fit the reported Florida distribution.

Polygala cymosa
I had not seen this before, but I recognized it as a Polygala. It was growing on the edge of a Cypress swamp in Levy County.

I thought it was cool to see a Sabatia with 7 petals. All of the ones around it had the standard five.

Spiranthes praecox
Tony found this orchid species in the power corridor in Levy County.

3 comments:

Scott Namestnik said...

Well, Ben, I don't have any keys to Florida plants here, but your first plant looks like it is in the genus Tribulus, and the second looks like Aletris farinosa. No idea which Sabatia that would be... there are quite a few down there.

P. J. Grath said...

Potentilla anserina (silverweed) is supposed to be a northern shoreline plant. Loves the Great Lakes. A Florida relative?

Scott Namestnik said...

No... Potentilla is in the family Rosaceae, whereas Tribulus is in the family Zygophyllaceae.