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1938-1939 Series Deader No. 13
FLORIDA THUDS, FLOIERS, FRUITS
BY
WILLIAM M. DUNCAN
l\i^FED(jR.AL, w<a>R_v<D AGk^CL/
Frepared For Use In Public Schools By The
FDDUR.iL 7PJTDRS' PPOJUCT OF TH3 '70 IKS FR0GKU33 ID; 1 IN 13 TP TI ON
Jacksonville, Florida
loader llo. 13
FLORID., Tinas, FL0TJ.R3, FWITS
Tjy
7illiam M. Duncan
To a naturalist, the State of Florida is one of the most com¬
plex and interesting regions in the world. The peninsula has a dry-
season that is wetter and a rainy season that is drier than the correspond¬
ing periods of the tropics. Temperate vegetation appears in the late
winter and tropic vegetation in summer.
There are many different types of areas—flat pine woods, rolling
woods, sand country, clay country, limestone, areas of bluish springs,
lakes and caves. There are dense hardwood forests, sand dunes and fer¬
tile hammocks; narrow, slowly-moving streams, and a range of highland
lakes. In the peninsular area, salt-water and fresh-water marshes,
cypress swamps, open swamps, lav hammocks and inundated prairies range
southward to the great m-rshland of the Dvorglados. 7ith every marked
change of altitude and soil, are corresponding changes of the flora, or
plant life.
The Treos
Hilly pinelands range from the ,labama line through middle-west Florida,
with longleaf pine and occasional sandy tracts of blackjack oak. Spruce pine
is near the coast, between .labnma and the Ocklockonoo River. Diversified
growth is seen in the limestone region of Holmes and Jackson countios, with
sandy, opon pino forests, rod clay hills, dense hardwoods, and cypress ponds
that dry up in the spring.
in area linking wost and central Florida, the middle Florida hammock
bolt extending from Liberty County to Marion County, contains pino woods,
sandy ha mocks, open prairies and hardwood forests. . region of rolling
sandy pine woods extends from Georgia, through the he.ird of the penin-
sual into south Florida, ilong the Gulf coast, from 3t. JTurks to Tarpon
Springs, is the great Gulf Hammock, with many large hardwood forests
and swamps. The lake region running through the heart of Florida from
Clay County to Highlands County, is a ridge-like sandy area, with ever¬
green oaks, high pinelands and high hardwood harmocks.
Spreading over the northeast corner of the State, are the east
Florida flat pinewoods, with countless shallow cypress ponds and swamps,
slash, shortleaf, black and longleaf pine.
Joining with the east Florida flatwoods on the east, the hammock
and lime-sink regions on the west, and divided in the middle by the lake
region, progressing south toward the Everglades, are the south Florida
flatwoods, closely resembling the forests of northeast Florida.
The Everglades, with its profuse tropical flora, ranges between the
coasts, from below a belt of treeless prairies north of Lake Okeechobee
to Florida Bay. Here are enormous stands of cypress and palm-covered
islands encircled by open, inundated areas covered with sawgrass.
In the western part, the Gulf coast presents bulwarks of mangrove
and buttonwood, and jungles of live oak, magnolia, mahogany, ash, maple
and holly-. Groat hammocks of cypress and Caribbean pine lie to the north.
The stately royal palm is found in abundance to the south.
Ranging inland from the east, are expanses of grass, lilies, and
other aquatic plants, broken by jungles of cabbage palmetto. In the
heart of the island jungles, almost inacossible, are luxuriant growths
of wild flavors, ferns, moss, orchids, and vines.. Tropical palms and
hardwoods are on the Florida Toys nearest the mainland, and Caribbean
pines grow over the lower group south to Key Jest.
Florida's northern Trees: Throughout the State, trees of temperate
origin mingle with tropical flora. In west Florida the maintain laurel,
which ranges up to Nova Scotia, gravs a few miles from the cabbage
paImetto.
Many of Florida's trees are quickly recognized by northerners. The
sycamore, one of the largest hardwood trees in America and characterized
by a thin bark that flakes off in large patches, is general over the
State. The maple, with its light-brown wood and bright-green, three-lobed
leaves, closely resembles the sugar-bearing maple in ITew England. The
yellow popular tree, which bears tulip-like flavers, and has a light, soft,
wood, is valuable for interior and exterior trim, veneers and other
special uses.
There are four hickories in north Florida. The bittornut, a tall,
slender tree, with granite-gray trunk, faintly tinged with yellow, is
found in lav, moist soils. The short-limbed white hickory of rich soils
has a dark-gray bark and takes its name from a white, tough, wood that
is exceptionally good fuel. Hammock hickory, common in hammocks north
of the Everglades, is usually the smallest of the four trees, although
its slender medium-gray trunk occasionally stretches to 00 foot.
Three ashes are found in river swamps. The river ash, with
reddish-brown bark, and the small water ash, have oval-shaped leaves,
slightly toothed at the margin. The great pumpkin ash, with slender
trunk and onl.rged base, sometimes attains heights of 80 feet.
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Tropical Iroes: Tho heaviest wood in the Unitod St'itos, block
ironwood, is on the Ivoys. Tho lightest, corkwood, is in west
Florida. The toughest, lignum vitao, and torchwood, one of the most
resinous, are also on the hoys.
Thoro is the huttonwood troe, considered without peer as fuel,
hocauso it throws off a great heat with little smoke. Tho soapberry
tree produces seeds which contain a substance usoful as a soap sub¬
stitute. The horsradish tree has a root that can be scraped and
oaten like horseradish. The sausage tree has an inedible fruit ro-
sombling sausngo. Poison wood, exudes a gun that raises a blistor
almost immediately after contact. Mahogany, of a variety inferior
to that in South America, appears in tho avorglados .and on the hoys.
One of tho rarest of trees, the torroya, is found along the \palachi-
cola Ttivcr. This, : varioty of cedar, has a wood that, when bruised,
exudes an unpleasant odor and for this reason is called "stinking cedar."
The tall gumbo limbo, on tho lower coasts, roaches ;;ro-t hwight .and
spreads its enomous roots on the surface of tho ground.
In coastal regions, are several varieties of trees entangling in
dense, spreading thickets. Strangest of these is the mahoo, in tho Ten
Thousand Islands. It suggests a huge strawberry plant, its limbs bonding
over, entering the ground, and taking root again, after tho manner of
tho native 3nst India 3 iny in. Tho mahoo, however, is a more sinister
growth than tho banyan, spreading at tho rate of five or six foot a year.
It is sometimos 135 foot across, though only 35 foot high. Soneath it
is a small forest of roots, limbs and tho rotting timber of trees killed
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i-n its path. Perhaps its only close rival as 3 menace to other plants
is the strangler fig, of the dense tropical jungles in the 'Ivorglades,
which tightens a thick trunk around the tree until it is dead, "hen
the victim has rotted away, the vine remains a hollow tube.
In parts of west Florida, the small, crooked-truriked, branching
titi forms dense growth. The bushy mangrove is found in deep thickets
along the coasts.
The Pines; Commercialized pine, growing in open forests in nearly
all regions, is the State's commonest evergreen, and the b:.sis of lumber¬
ing, turpentine, and rosin industries. In northwest Florida is the tall,
smooth-barked spruce pine. Slash and longleaf pine grow over the entire
peninsula, and in north and oast Florida, keep company with shortleaf
and loblolly pine. In south Florida there is a variety of slash pine,
commonly called Caribbean or Cuban pine. Sand pine s-.eks the dunes of
the coast and sand of the interior, and the- pond or black pine, is found
in swamps #nd on poor soils.
Most of those varieties can be easily identified—the- spruce pine
by its largo trunk and great height; slash pine by the small branches at
its round-topped head, and its glossy, prickly cones; longleaf by the
lustrous, 10-inch noodles. Tho loblolly pine, which is not very common,
is characterised by its deeply furrowed .barks. Shortleaf pino is readily
distinguished by its short noodles and small cones. Sand pino has a
crookod trunic and scrubby appear";no0 while block pino has dirkor bark
and boars globular conos.
Hardwood: yinding green tracts of hardwood trace the banks of the
State's many small rivers and creeks. Here, inter hickory, white bay,
scarlet-leaved loblolly bay, sweet gam, water ash and others are found
in dense and colorful growth.
Over high areas are the sandy Florida "hammocks"-, high and low,
on hills and in ravines. Here prevail scrubby blackjack or turkey oaks,
water laurel, willow oaks, cedar, and the red-berried holly. Here also
grow the live oaks, with massive dome and spreading, almost horizontal
limbs; the sturdy, trim-barked dogwood, with lovely flowers that are
the forest feature of spring; and the tree that, to many, is the most
beautiful of all—the magnolia, with its smooth, brown trunk sometimes
four feet in diameter, large, leathery, green loaves, and cream-colored
blossoms with purple center.
Festoons of Spanish moss add their gray beauty to the deep shade
of all hammocks. 11though it sprouts from tiny seeds lodging in the
crevices of the trunk or bough, and sends cut rootlets for attachment,
the plant derives nc sustenance from the trc„; all of its food coming
from the air and rain.
i most durable and valuable timber tree is the cypress, which lifts
a fluted, silvery trunk above swamps and shillow ponds, over the entire
State. The largest, sometimes 100 foet in height, are hundreds of years
old. Peculiar, knob-like cypress "knees" grow from the tro-. s' roots,
appearing around the base. Their function has net boon determined,
though samo boliove they gather air for the root system.
Ornamentals: One of the most popular ornamentals grown in citios
in all parts of the State is the camphor tree. The wood of this luxuriant,
smooth-trunkod species contains camphor, useful ns an antiseptic, and
is grown for this purpose in China. Another native of China, the low
china-berry tree is a com;.ion shade tree in rural areas. It bears
lilac-colored flowers and yellow borrics in April.
China also has given Florida a troc of growing commercial importance,
the tung oil troc. This small, pink-blossoming species produces the
tung nut. The oil from its seeds is used in the manufacture of varnishes,
paints, oilcloth, linoleum, and a great variety of waterproofing materials.
Introduced and developed in Florida by tho 3t:te Agricultural Experiment
Station, tho troc is planted in largo groves in the vicinity of Gainesville.
In 1938 the State's total output of tung oil wis estimated at approximately
1,000,000 pounds.
hone is moro decorative than tho graceful Paradise tree, found
in lower Florida. During the spring the lav, rounded head of this tropi¬
cal species is overspread with clusters of small, yellow flowers, ".'est
Florida 1ms among others, the dainty redbud, with rod-brown bark and pink
flowers. Tho Australian pino, forming an excellent windbreak, and the
silk oak are popular highway ornamentals in south Florid i.
Palms: The palms of south Florida comprise a natural symbol of our
nearness to tho tropics. The most beautiful is tho tall royal palm, with
its light-gray trunk tapering upward from an onlargod base to n upper
shaft of bright green. Tho leaves of the largo, arching crown are
deep green, and sometimes 12 foot in longth.
Tho crooked-trunk coconut palm is highly f .vorod both for its nuts
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and as an ornamental. The shaggy-hoadod cabbage pilm or sabnl palmetto
is most common of all palms and found throughout the State. Cocos
Plumosa is planted in many parks, being tall and straight, with arch¬
ing fronds. The thatch palm is relatively small, with spreading fan-
shaped loaves. The date palm is also grown, although here its fruit
has no commercial value. The slow-growing srgo, which has a maximum height
of 10 feet, and thee camptie, a small plant, are not true palms, but
cycads. The comptie, resembling both a palm and a fern, yields a nutri¬
tious starch eaten by early pioneers and Florida Indians.
The saw palmetto, a dwarf palm, forms the most common undergrowth
of the entire State, appearing wherever there is sand. The base of this
strange plant puts out numerous strong roots on the underside of the
stem. Advancing, its buds continue to grow, branching, dividing, and
producing new plants as the parent dies.
7ild Flowers
7ild flowers differ in variety according to their location: dark
or sandy soil, swamp or pinoland, dry hills or marshes.
The common dandelion is seen on dry soil in spring and sumor. ilso
in dry pinelands, in sumor, is falso foxglove, with largo, pale-yellow
flowors and jagged dark-green loaves. The wild lupine, its blue flowers
resembling a sweet poa, ippoars in mid-winter and is present until early
summer. This plant folds its leaves at niglitjit boars pods containing
four or five seeds. The spreading sterns of milk vetch, with heart-shaped
loiflots and small, pilo-purple flavors, form gray-grocn carpets from
late winter until summer.
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Othor familiar members of tho pine forest oompany include the
snail, six-pointed flowers of yollow star gr^sc, found in winter and
summer, and tho minute blossoms of tho diamond flov/or, spreading in
mats closo to the ground. Spring and summer bring tho button snake-
root, a stout plant, up to four foot tall, with blue or white globular
haads. Goldonrod and milkwort bloom all ye :r. The latter flower, with
a clovor-liko head at tho end of a smooth stem, varies in color from
pink or rod to groonish-whito.
On sandy soil, from spring through fall, arc numerous black-cyod
Susans, showing a bright-yollow ray with brown disk. This flower has
abund=ant pollen, and is often attended by wasps, beetles and butterflies.
Toad flax, with blue and purple spikes from six inches to two feet
in length, blossoms in smdy woods in winter ".nd spring. The starry, five—
lobed white and pink flowers of dogbane bloom in loose clusters all year.
The name is derived from an old bolief that the plant w3s poisonous to
dogs. ..nether year-round sand-hill flower is Tread Softly, a low-
graving nottlo, with stinging hairs and small white blossoms#
Spring brings to low pinolands the largo, vhito Easter, or ptamasco
lily# The wild rod lily appears both in summer and, occ isionally, in winter.
False garlic, a small, white lily, growing from a bulb, is seen in winter
and spring. The yoar-rcund pitcher plant or fly catcher, is of a carnivor¬
ous nature. This strange, trumpet-shaped plant has reddish tubular leaves
that attract flies, bcetlos and ants. After the insects have fallen in¬
side, they arc unable to escape, and are dissolved into a nutrient solution
absorbed by tho loaf.
Many of the wild flowers in boggy pinolands and marshes bloon ill year.
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Examples include St, Peter's wort, a four-petaled, yellow flower on a
shrubby plant, up to three foet tall; St. John's wort, a similar flower,
with five petals, and penny wort, with creeping stems, small round leaves
and small, pink-tinged blossoms, also yellow-eyed grass, characterized
by a leafless, flowering stem, and yellow, round heads at the end of a
short spike; pipe wort, its small flowers foimirg a white, gray or brown
button-like head at the top of fluted stems; marsh pines, consisting of
four to 12-lobed flowors of pink, white, or bluo; and fog- fruit, showing
small blue flowers on a low, compact stalked hoad. Oolic root, topped
by small, tubular, yellow flowers, and with a rosetto of yellav-grcon
loaves at the base of tho stem, blooms in spring.
Bedroot, showing ; dull, yoilow-greon cluster of flowers it tho head
of a leafy stom, arrives in spring to rem:: in all summer. brilliant-red
sap flows through its roots, Tho blue, fivo-lobod blossom of tho mono is
another summer flower, as is door grass, identified by a squnro stom,
round, slightly heart-shaped loivos, and deep-colored, four-pctaled
flowors of pink, p.ilo-purple and rose.
Many kinds of a.rustic flowors :nd plants lend orn mental offoct
to Florida's likes, streams and ditchos. The witer hyicinth, introduced
from Brazil, propagates so rapidly ;nd extensively that gangs of workmen
aro ofton required to clear it from navigable waterways. Its striking, bluo
flower is floated :t tho surface by air-fillod stems.
\rrow-head is a white aquatic flower, in whorls of three. Tho
beautiful spider lily, with stalk one to two f act in height, has a
slender, white flavor of six lebos. Water lettuce floats thick, light-
groon wedge-shaped loaves, and its floating hoart shows ; white flower
and heart-shopod loaves.
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Spring in the swamps brings the limrd'a tail, known by its small,
white flowers on a spike that droops at the tip, and spoonflcwer, with a
fleshy stalk, and a white flower resembling a pointed spoon. The many
purple blossoms on the root-like stem of the thalia appeir in summer and
fall. Blueflag, n wild iris, with three petals md sword-shaped loaves,"
blooms in late winter and spring. Golden Club, its flowering stem covered
with small, yellow flowers, blooms in swamps and shallow water from late
winter into summer. Smilax is common through the year, intertwining
prickly stems, and bearing clusters of black, yellow or rod berries.
Ferns
Many kinds of ferns grow in Florida's pincl ;nds, prairies, hammocks,
marshos, and swamps. Throughout the 3t ;te, the resurrection fern forms
mats of greon on the barks of trees. This abundant pi -nt shrivels up
in day weather, but regains its color after rainfall. The maiden-hair
fern is fairly extensive, c,rpoting the floors of lime-sinks and high
pincland hammocks. The halberd fern, with largo loaf-blades, grows
best in lime-sinks and grottoes. Quillwort, a grass-like pi nt, is
common along pincland streams, and in wot woods, marshos and hammocks.
7et, moist grounds also produco the 1-037 <1 fern, "/hen old, this
familiar fern turns red or dark brown. .. plant that grows best around the
base of trees and in cypress knees is the chain-forn. Many tropical
varieties arc found in lower Florida, including the largc-losvcd fern of
mmgrovo swamps and salt marshes; the old Boston fern, spreading over the
trunks of cabbage palmettos, and the strap fern, found on the limbs of
live oaks.
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Orchids
Beautiful orchids aro found in Florid:, especially in the southern
part. There aro a number of epiphytic varieties (those growing on troes)
but the most abundant aro torrcstriil, or rooted in the soil. One common
epiphytic species, the butterfly orchid, is found in the hammocks and
swamps of southern Florida in spring and sunnier, its groan-brown flowors
roundish and clustered. Terrestrial orchids can bo seen in low grounds
throughout the State. The small, greenish-white ladies' tresses bloom in
winter and spring, and the small, pure-white, spurred orchid, .as also the
yellow-fringed orchid, in spring and summer. Fragrant rose pogonii blooms
in matshes in late winter and spring.
Tropical Fruits
In lower Florida arcund Miami and the Fcys, is a large v riety of
curious tropical fruits. Here thrive such delectable oddities as the
papaya, which is cocked as a vegetable when green, and oaten as a fruit
when ripe; breadfruit, which, baked, resembles bre:dj the crimson-pulped,
agreeably acid pomegranate: and the mango, with its very lirge seed and
subacid pulp. Also, the kumquat, the smallest of all citrus fruits; the
butter-like avocado, cno of the most nutritious fruits in the world; the
guava, famed in the miking of jelly; the spicy Surinam cherry; the extremely
sugary tamarind; the refreshing Japaneso loguat; besides the common coconuts,
pineapples and bananas.
Citrus; A most importint feiturc cf Florida's plant life is citrus.
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.imcng the earliest reference to citrus fruit in Florid i, is that of
Jonathan Dickons en, who, in 1696, wroto of St. Augustine: "It is about
throe-quartors of • mile in length, net regularly built, the houses net
very thick, they having large orchards, in which are plenty of oranges,
lemons, pome-citrons, limes, figs and peaches."
It is known that oranges reached the West Indies as a part of
Columbus' cargo on his second voyage in 1497, and that they were brought
from there to the Florida mainland by early Spanish colonists and ex¬
plorers. Wild groves were created in many places when Indians obtained
the fruit and carried it about, dropping seeds on the shores of lakes and
streams.
Various kinds of oranges grow from the oast coast to the west, south
from an area that begins at Mandarin in Duval County, and extends diagonally
southwest across lower .lachua County to the gulf coast near Brooksvillo.
Do the north and west, over the remainder of the State, arc many groves
of the hardy Satsuma orange. Besides oranges, grapefruit, lumons, limes,
and tangerines are important sources of the fruit growor.'s income.
Both Contra! and South Florida begin citrus shipments in September,
when oarly soascn grapefruit ripens, and continue to July, Dhc vegetable
season of the same regions begins in October, lasting until august. North
Florida's vegetable shipments are made from December to August. West
Florida's truck and staple harvest shews two distinct periods—September
to January, and March to August. Fruits <nd vegetables arc grown commer¬
cially overy month.
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BIBLIOGIUFHY
Annual Report of tho
State Marketing guroau
1936-37
Baker, Harry Loo
Bakor, Mary Francis
Bakor, Mary Francis
Goo, Ernest F.
Gifford, John C»
Giffcrd, John G»
Mattoon, '7. R.
0lmst cad and Y/hart en
Rogers, Julia Ellon
Simpson, C. T#
Simpson, G. T.
Simpson, C. T.
Small, J.
Small, J. K,
Florid.'; Forosts and Forestry
Florida ;yilA Flowers
Florida's Jild Flowors
Land of the Fountain of
Youth. The
Roport on Poat Deposits
Florid.: Keys, with Special
Reference to Soil Productivity
List of Eroos of the State
of Florida
Common Forest Trees of
Florida
Florida Everglades. Tho
Tree Book. The
Florid • y;ild Lifo
In Lowor Florida's V/ilds
Out of Doors in Florida
Ferns of Florida
Florida frees
From Field to Market
Stevenson, ITollio I# Florida's Trees
Stovonscn, Nellie I.
Swinohart, Gerry
Pocket Guide to 60 Distin-
tivo Trcpical Troos.
Strange „re Their Fruits
Nature Mngazino
Maomillnn
Nature Magazine
("December)
p.mpjtil et
Florid; State Geo¬
logical Survey
Department of
.gricuituro
Fla. Federation
of demon's Club
Florida Forestry
\ssociat ion
Pmphlet
Deubleday-Doran
1929
1938
1929
Putnam
ilacmillan
Science Press
Small
State Mirkoting
Bureau
Nature Magazine
(December)
Stevenson
Nnturo Maga zino
(December)
1914
1935
1909
1930
1931
1932
1920
1923
1931
1913
1938
1929
1933
1929