Onslow Plant Rescue: A First-Person Account

Jennifer Hopton-Villalobos

Jennifer Hopton-Villalobos with Pawpaw (Asimina sp.)

When I first saw the property, I was amazed. It was like nothing I’d seen before. The diversity of small plants intrigued me. We all wondered how it remained so diverse without benefit of fire. It was surrounded by typical American yards, with common invasive species creeping toward it. That little plat of land had managed to survive intact despite the rampant modern-era development in the Orlando area. It existed as a tiny glimpse into the past. A glimmer of what the entire area could have been if left untouched. This land is officially called a Bald Rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides) sandhill plant community….. Yet, transplanting and propagating Ceratiola Ericoides is challenging. This was the first plant rescue for Cupletfern and many of the volunteers. I learned a lot and I’m sure all who participated did. The insight gained from it is not something one can gain from any other gardening, botany education, or hiking experience.

At the beginning of the rescue, we learned the lot was going to belong to a single family. They gave Cupletfern Chapter of FNPS permission to conduct a plant rescue. We were all so envious of the opportunity this family would have to marvel over and observe the annual life cycles of a diverse native plant and animal community over the years. We also realized that without human intervention, the pristine land would eventually be overtaken by invasive weeds. The torpedo grass and natal grasses were on the roadside near this property. This is an alarming problem all of Florida’s natural lands face. The rescue plan was determined based on an understanding that a family would live there who intended to keep as much of the property intact as they could. There were gopher tortoises living on the property, state-listed as Threatened, both the tortoise and its burrow are protected under state law. Property owners must obtain permits from the FWC before land clearing or development takes place, and tortoises must be captured and relocated to FWC-authorized recipient areas. The owners were taking all the legal steps to protect them. We hoped the family would pay special attention to the native plants that grew there since the FNPS conducted a plant rescue on the property. They learned this was a special piece of land, yet they couldn’t keep it as plans changed.

Sandspike moss (Selaginella arenicola)

This site is now going to be part of a housing development. What I call, “factory-built neighborhoods”, built at a level of speed and efficiency perfected by years of experience, with the intention of maximizing the most profits in the shortest amount of time. Learning of this change was painful to all of us. There are so many tiny plant species growing within the plant community there. Many, are shorter than a pencil, and some are just a couple of inches tall or less. These can all be found growing together in just one square foot of space. It was very diverse, from the small to the tall. When one spends hours carefully digging in a relatively small area, there’s a lot of time to spend looking at what lives there.

Over the previous years, I have been learning about many insect-plant co-evolutionary relationships: mutualism, when a plant and insect rely only on each other to exist; a concept most of us are familiar with from the monarch and milkweed relationship. There are many insects, especially butterflies, and moths, that rely on a single plant family or genus for their survival. Without that plant, it starves. This type of relationship is not unusual in the natural world, But most insects that rely on plants in this way are not as beautiful as a monarch, so their requirements for survival remain unknown. All insects as a whole are vital for the food chain- for survival of living things- when birds are declining, lack of food is a significant contributor. Insects are needed to feed their young more than berries and seeds. There are numerous inter-species relationships scientists have studied. Certainly, countless are yet to be discovered. How many might exist in just this one plant community? How many will go undiscovered because of the loss of habitat and insect communities to rapid development?

Each native habitat is so very beautiful and unique, and native plants, being the foundation of all life in the location these organisms have coexisted together for millions of years, it begs the question, why do we continue to destroy native habitats, and turn them into boring regular lawns with non-native landscaping? Part of the answer may be attributed to the advent of the automobile. As Americans suddenly found easy and cheap transportation, urban centers began to sprawl out into nearby untouched lands. The prescribed aesthetic was neat houses with neat lawns, something early Americans strived for, imitating royalty from nations across the Atlantic. While we cannot change the decisions of all, especially those of the past, we do what we can by supporting conservation, restoration, and as a last resort, something that should be part of the process of land destruction (development), we should include rescuing plant communities and transplanting them onto protected properties where they hopefully survive and reproduce.

Balduina angustifolia

My first day at the rescue property involved exploration and the collection of liatris seeds because they would quickly blow away- we arrived just in time to gather matured seeds. Important locations were marked, but as the rescue progressed, we realized everything was worth saving. Priority was placed on the less common and threatened plant species. We of course rescued common species because diversity and plant community representation include those as well. We tried to fit as much as we could into each pot, including a topping of the various Cladonia species on site. These lichen species have the added benefit of absorbing and retaining moisture and are associated with certain plant species such as blueberries and soil microbes. We were unable to identify some plants right away. One fantastic benefit of social media has been free access to the most experienced botanists in Florida. We were able to post our images in the various groups where they communicate and share images with each other and laypeople. Through group collaboration, we were able to get the correct identification of plant species. It is remarkable that these skilled individuals freely pass on their knowledge and expertise! We are so grateful.

The property has at least 2 plant species that I and others learned are exceptionally tricky to transplant, propagate from cuttings, or have successful germination. Two species we all lust for, Asimina species (pawpaws) and Ceratiola ericoides! There were others as well, but I will focus on these 2 due to the lack of availability at native plant nursuries and to provide a small example of some of the predicaments we face as intact habitats are razed. Of course, we love all of the plant species there, many not found in native nurseries often or ever, but those two, in particular, we knew most likely will never be a common plant found in native nurseries and one difficult to save or use for restorations. Considering one of Florida’s unique ecosystems is a Bald Rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides) sandhill plant community, we are especially concerned with the difficulties we faced with this plant species. The shrub that defines the community was not successfully rescued: unfortunately due to time constraints, we were unable to do the in-depth experimentation these species require. We had to limit the labor and time-intensive excavations to make the best use of our time.

Florida rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides)

On the last day of the plant rescue, I recall looking at the property with dismay and thinking that it barely looked like we removed even a small percentage of what remained, but at that point, we had some peace of mind that a family was going to live there that would fall in love with it and protect it. Driving in that area and most places, once one understands what should exist compared to what does, it is hard to face that reality…. It is difficult to remain optimistic when one loses the blissful ignorance of how our ecosystems *should* be, versus how they are in a significant portion of Florida:

“One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise.”

― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Doctors also strive to treat illness and heal: we could do that.

The other species many of us native plant enthusiasts discovered to be uncommon in the native plant nurseries, difficult to germinate, impossible to propagate from cuttings, and to have poor survival rates with transplanting, is pawpaws (Asimina species in central Florida). In general, the Asimina (pawpaw) species native to Central Florida don’t recover from transplanting well, whether from a pot and/or especially if an attempt is made to dig one up!! It seems one must get all the tap root and keep it as stable as possible until transplanting to it’s destination. If it is a larger plant, the pot must be very tall, and filled with soil, which becomes very heavy! The practicality of digging one up with its roots to what seems like the center of the earth and immediately transplanting to the final destination is a stretch given the time and human volunteer constraints with a rescue project. Another major complication I alluded to, is that they grow tap roots that go down five feet or more! We were especially surprised to learn that the tap root grows deep very early, even when the plant is just a few inches tall and very thin in circumference. This makes the removal quite precarious! The deeper you get with a young Asimina, the thinner and more delicate the root. It is easy to accidentally break if great care is not taken. That is a hard lesson learned from this plant rescue. At least we did take the extra time and care to get a relatively small amount out. The population of Asimina was plentiful for the size of the lot and there were many mature Asimina/pawpaws. I am aware of a few transplanted in their final homes that have survived. They are still dormant, it is mid-February, but I can see the green on the stems and they retained leaves until they went (I hope/assume) dormant. One has kept two small leaves. Why do we adore the Asimina? Besides the beautiful flowers, and their unique fragrance, the Pawpaws, like milkweeds, are important host plants for a gorgeous butterfly that you can’t see unless pawpaws live nearby. The butterfly that relies only on pawpaws/Asimina spp. is the zebra swallowtail, Protographium marcellus, an elusive, fast, and erratic flying butterfly (difficult to get a photograph of), but oh so lovely to see in real life. In suburbia Florida, it’s like seeing a fairy!

The other potentially even more complicated plant to work with was Ceratiola ericoides/Florida rosemary or sandhill rosemary, a prime example of why common names are confusing- because there is another plant with the common name of scrub rosemary or false rosemary in the Conradina genus… these names can make communication unclear. Various species of plants, native to Florida, compared to an herb we use for cooking, native to the Mediterranean, Portugal, and northwestern Spain because the leaves have the same shape and growth pattern, and for Conradina, the flowers are comparable – they are all in the Lamiaceae/mint family! To avoid the confusion, especially since the Florida/sandhill rosemary is not even in the Lamiaceae family, dedicating extra time for memory is worthy of this plant that is unique to just Florida and a few other states in the uplands of the south-eastern United States. Ceratiola is a beautiful word, so why not dedicate it to our memory? Ceratiola ericoides is in the Ericaceae family, the same family as blueberries, azalea, and lyonia, yet is very different looking! My personal experience with the native Ericaceae family is that they are more challenging than other families to garden and propagate. They have a lower survival rate when transplanted and germination is slow. It has a low to zero success rate. Also, the successful propagation of rooted cuttings of Ceratiola ericoides so far has been zero for us. Perhaps we need more experience/trial and error, our timing was limited to winter and early spring. Sometimes the time of year is important for successful propagation. It is known that Ericaceous plants rely on Ericoid mycorrhizal fungi and other microbial communities in the root zone for nutrient acquisition and they are able to “choose” which microorganisms survive through the release of natural chemicals, which seem to allow some microbes to thrive, and others cannot- another remarkably incredible mutualist relationship!

Lechea cernua (scrub pinweed) demonstrating long fragile root system

Holobiont communities in soils are another subject that I learned about during the rescue. We know about plant communities; certain plants that are known to naturally grow together throughout the regions they all naturally co-existed within for millions of years. For some inexplicable reason, there are certain plant species that grow right together. It is a worldwide phenomenon. Recognizing plant communities is one way to identify an ecosystem. Holobiont communities can be thought of as the soil microbial version of a plant community. These microbial communities become more unique the longer the native flora remains intact. There is an entire complex universe that exists among the roots of plants based on species of plants and the neighboring plants. Removing entire plant communities from this very complex system disrupts the microscopic networks in which they thrive. Cerariola ericoides seem to be the most difficult of all the Ericaceae family. As far as we can tell, none that we transplanted from Onslow survived. We wonder if the soil microbial community they were transplanted into reduced the survival level or if there is some other unknown component. That said, we didn’t get a large quantity of this species potted up, because there simply were not many small plants.

We all experienced this rescue differently. Many of us native plant lovers experience a deep internal struggle as we helplessly watch the constant destruction of our natural lands. Plant rescues are an opportunity to mitigate the negative psychological effects of overdevelopment when one does not have hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to buy up land. The experience of a rescue on such a unique piece of land is emotionally difficult. As volunteers work, they lament about not being able to simply save the land. Still, these efforts are important when all else has failed. As plant diversity and unique communities of life are destroyed, we lose the beauty, life, and knowledge potential. I’m sure we’ll never realize that entirely. The concept of shifting baseline syndrome or generational amnesia comes to mind. As more land is developed, the general population perceives our natural lands and animal populations as they see it in their day-to-day lives, instead of how it was, even 20 years ago. It is increasingly important to teach and show people what our natural lands should look like and to explain why we need to prioritize conservation, natural land management, and restoration to reduce the devastating impacts civilization has taken from the rest of Earth’s diverse life forms. Not only do we need to participate in increasing biodiversity in our managed natural lands and on our own properties, but we need to make sure there are intact, well-managed natural lands where people can go to see examples at frequently visited locations, with signage and opportunities to learn these concepts.

On the basics of this rescue work, Cuplet Fern was awarded a grant from Duke Energy to build on the programs we started in partnership with Lyonia Environmental Center, and the expertise Cupletfern Director, Chelsea LeNoble, one of our directors contributed! The location is ideal for public education and participation. It’s near the Deltona library, schools, and is easy to drive to, not many miles from an I-4 exit. Cupletfern members, student interns, and boy scouts are conducting ongoing monitoring and reporting and will host events pertaining to the rescue. Lyonia Preserve was the final destination for the remainder of the plants that Cupletfern Director, Cali Adams kept alive for over a year, the 3rd location Cupletfern volunteers installed the rescued plants. Volunteers were of all ages and many were very enthusiastic. This became part of a Boyscout project and will be ongoing and an inspiration for other scouts in the future. We hope the memories they made will live with them and impact their perception of natural lands and plant diversity for the rest of their lives. At Lyonia Preserve, monitoring has already begun. We have returned to correct any common plant installation problems such as air holes around the root zone of the potted plants, those buried too deeply or not enough, and any mounds of sand next to plants that might eventually erode over plants. Plants buried too deeply tend to suffer and often die as a result. So far, the survival numbers at Lyonia have been impressive! This doesn’t mean they are destined to thrive though; they still need to survive through our dry season, the upcoming heat, and more extreme sunlight as we transition into spring and summer. That will be the true test. There is no on-site irrigation. Any watering will have to be brought in with containers. That’s for several hundred plants in galleries where one must go down trails, watching for plants on the ground, branches, and cacti.

Florida rosemary (Ceratiola ericoides)

Monitoring has been rewarding and encouraging! The high level of survival, even of the endangered Lechea cernua, is incredible!!! In addition, we are even discovering germination of the scrub forked-blue curl, Trichostema suffrutescens! This species was not vouchered for Seminole county or Volusia and is a recently newly named species, so new, it’s not yet listed in the Florida Plant Atlas. I have seen it in one undeveloped natural area in Volusia County, but I don’t get to hike frequently, so there's a good chance it is more common than documented in both counties. Weakley’s Flora was used for keying it out as well as help from the iNaturalist community, a valuable crowdsourcing app where top native plant biologists voluntarily verify species identifications. These beautiful transplanted plant communities will benefit pollinators, birds, and other life forms. In addition to the scrub forked bluecurls, there is, Crocanthemum nashii, Sisyrinchium xerophylum, Liatris tenuifollium, Balduina angustifolia, Chrysopsis gossypina, Hypericum tenuifolium, Piloblephis rigida, and more!!! This is very exciting and promising.

Thanks to the hard work of volunteers, the installed plant community will be a gorgeous sight and we are motivated to continue developing programs around this project for the long term.