There Grew a Little Flower

"What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

We don't have a lot of lawn in My Florida Backyard - it provides little wildlife value and requires too much maintenance. The little bits of lawn we do have are speckled with what others might call weeds and try to eradicate, but we call wildflowers and treasure for their beauty.

We recently reviewed a new book by Jaret C. Daniels called the Wildflowers of Florida Field Guide. When flipping through it, we saw many of the wildflowers that grow in our lawn at different times of year, and decided to see how it could help us identify the ones growing there now.

On pages 172-173, we found the Florida Tasselflower (Emilia fosbergii), a non-native that has naturalized throughout the American south. This showy little flower is great for bees and butterflies, and incredibly beautiful up close.

Another find was Creeping Wood Sorrel (Oxalis corniculata) on pages 304-305. This little yellow-flowered native is often confused with clover due to the shape of its leaves, which fold up in the mid-day sun. It's worth noting that during the recent drought, the patches of lawn colonized by Creeping Wood Sorrel remained an attractive green when the nearby turf grass turned brown and dry.

Tropical Mexican Clover (Richardia brasiliensis) was on pages 238-239, and is another non-native that's naturalized throughout Florida. Despite the name, it's not actually part of the clover genus (Trefoil), and isn't from Mexico - it's from South America. Regardless, the little starry white flowers are delicate and deserve some up-close admiration. It's shown in the picture below with an unidentified purple flower we'll discuss later.

We already knew the scientific name of the native plant on pages 284-285: Bidens alba. We've learned to call it Spanish Needle, although Daniels refers to it as "Romerillo". We have a real love/hate relationship with Bidens. It makes a wonderful nectar plant for butterflies, but the barbed seeds are really unpleasant to deal with. We generally allow them to thrive in a few areas of the yard where we don't need to walk too frequently.

One of the most wonderfully named plants is on pages 228-229: Arrasa Con Todo (Gomphrena serrata). Loosely translated from Spanish, it means "destroys everything", which seems a little hyperbolic. This non-native definitely invades lawns in Florida, though, and is generally considered a nuisance.

Of course, no field guide can ever provide all the answers. One of the prettiest little flowers in our lawn doesn't seem to be in the book. In the wide world of nature, we've learned that sometimes you just have to ask for help, so... do you recognize this tiny little flower? Let us know in the comments if you do.

So, the Wildflowers of Florida Field Guide was 5 for 6 in My Florida Backyard today. We consider this a pretty good track record, and look forward to taking it on the road with us to help us identify (and perhaps collect seeds from) wildflowers in the field. In the meantime, we're glad to have it as we put names to the little flowers that we refuse to call weeds.

A Review: Wildflowers of Florida Field Guide

We use a variety of books to identify the residents and visitors in My Florida Backyard. There are lots of guides to choose from out there, so we thought it might be helpful to tell you about some of the ones we like best. This is our first review, so if there's information we left out that you would find helpful in future reviews, please tell us in the comments.

If you're a butterfly fan, you may already be familiar with the work of Jaret C. Daniels, an entomologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Though in the past his books have focused mainly on butterflies, his new guide is a handy little reference to Florida wildflowers that we highly recommend. Its small size makes it perfect for tucking in a backpack on a hike, and the simple format ensures you can quickly find the information you're looking for.

The book begins with a short introduction to wildflowers. It explains strategies for identifying wildflowers, such as understanding leaf type and attachment, flower type and cluster, and fruit. The icons used in this section are then used throughout the book as the various wildflowers are detailed.

The pure genius of the book, like others published by Adventure Publications, is the way in which it is organized: the wildflowers are broken down by flower color, shown in colored tabs along the side of the pages. When you use this book in the field, you can quickly locate the section where you're most likely to find your plant. The large and detailed pictures are all on the left-hand side, with corresponding information on the facing page.

If you're not completely sure you've identified the flower correctly from the picture, the detailed written descriptions of flower and leaf should help you, along with the bloom time, range, and habitat. For each flower, its native/non-native origin is noted as well.

We have just a few minor quibbles with the book. It would be nice to know if non-natives were considered invasive in the state; you don't want to take time to collect seed from a plant that you really don't want to welcome into your yard. It would also have been helpful to have icons indicating each plant's wildlife value (nectar plant, fruit for birds, etc.). However, this is a field guide, meant to be sleek and portable, so the level of detail is understandably limited.

Our biggest complaint is the lack of a scientific name index (perhaps it was eliminated to save space?). We've learned over and over that common names, especially of wildflowers, can be confusing and contradicting. The ability to look up plants by their scientific name would have been well-worth a few extra pages in the guide.

Overall, though, this book is a really useful little guide to a sometimes overwhelming and baffling subject - Florida wildflowers. We've used it multiple times in the few weeks since we bought it (look for an upcoming post identifying some of the wildflowers in our lawn), and consider it to be well-worth the money. We give it: 4.5 out of 5 stars.