Jan. 2, 2022 - Florida Wildflowers

About a month ago, Diana and I took a trip to Sanibel Island, Florida. Back in Minnesota, the ground was covered with snow, and we wouldn’t see flowers outside for several months. That made it especially enjoyable to see these wildflowers blooming in Florida. During a visit to Corkscrew Swamp, I photographed this Arrowhead plant in full bloom. Ironically, we also have Arrowhead growing during the summer in our lake in northern Minnesota.

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This pretty little flower is called Marsh Pink. I saw it at the Bailey Tract on Sanibel Island.

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Here’s another flower I photographed at the Bailey Tract. It’s called Poor Man’s Patch.

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I photographed this flower at Corkscrew Swamp, but I didn’t know what it was. So, I submitted it to a plant identification page on Facebook and someone identified it as Pickerelweed.

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We found this Wild Poinsettia plant growing beside the wildlife drive at Ding Darling NWR. It’s hard to believe this is related to the large, bright red commercial Poinsettias that we buy each year at Christmas time.

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You can find Dune Sunflowers growing all along the Gulf Coast on Sanibel Island. This photo was taken at Lighthouse Park.

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One of the most impressive flowers I saw at Corkscrew Swamp was this Spider lily. Toward the left side of the photo is one blossom that hasn’t opened yet.

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