Wildflowers of Carlton Reserve

Literally 500 yards from my home in Venice is the real jewel of all of the many Sarasota’s parks and reserves, the Carlton Reserve.  Unfortunately for me (but not the Reserve) I would have to wade across the Myaka River to get there. So instead, this morning, I decided to drive the 5 miles to get there via the Border Road Bridge.  What makes the Reserve so attractive is not its large size, which at 25,000 acres puts it just smaller than the abutting 28,000 acre Myaka River State Park, but that it is still undiscovered. It’s located at the dead end of Border Road near some cattle and horse ranches and small homes. You have to target Carlton as a destination.

I parked in the small sandy parking lot near the interpretive kiosk and picked up a map. No other cars were present. There is no fee. I carried my normal hiking gear: binoculars, camera, water, bug spray, a snack, and my GPS/i-Phone. I have over 80 miles of trails to choose from, and if I include the connecting Myaka River State Park trails, there are hundreds of miles of trail options. Camping is allowed as well as biking and horse back riding.

 I chose as a destination the old turpentine camp, where 100 years ago, near slave labor harvested pine resin from the plentiful Longleaf Pine forests. Round trip for me would be about 6 miles. The trails are well marked with numbers at intersections and colored markers on the more popular trails. 
 
A small pavilion, toilets, a log cabin and about 20 tent camp sites mark the “Park Area” of the Reserve. Once past this relative civilized area, I headed into the wild on a narrow grassy trail, called the “red” trail. Within minutes a large black pig appeared 100 feet ahead! I wasn’t ready. By the time I got my camera out, he was off the trail into the thick underbrush. But this was not to be the last pig of the day.

Carlton Pavillion
 

Carlton Visitor Center

 It was after 9 am, so there was little action in the birding category.  So Instead of looking up, I looked closely at the ground around me. At the edge of the trail, I noticed a variety of wildflowers, some less than 1/8 inch, all struggling with the weeds and grasses to put forth their colorful faces.

Clustered Rock-Rose

It is April, when plants and flowers are reviving themselves from the relative cold of winter. I should have no trouble finding subjects to shoot. So I decided today to concentrate on these beautiful, delicate and short-lived plants, and photograph, and identify as many as possible. Photographing plants is much easier than animals. They don’t run from you, you can get as close as you want, and you can take as many shots as you want. So I slowed my pace considerably and felt my excitement growing at each turn of the trail, as I spotted and shot each new species.






 The trails I picked meandered through two distinct habitats: Relatively dry pine flatlands, and Palm and Oak lowlands. The sunny openness of the pines provided the more fertile hunting ground.

Pine Flatlands Trail

Oak Palm Lowlands

 

My method as usual is to take a lot of shots of each species I encounter. Then at home, I load them onto the pc, pick the best ones of each, and enlarge and crop if necessary. Then I attempt to ID them from the Audubon Field Guide to Florida or the internet.  

By the time I got to the Turpentine Camp, I had at least 15 different species safely in my camera. The camp itself was only a clearing in the scrub, with a few 200 year old oaks, providing shade.  Any outbuildings or artifacts had long since disappeared.

Turpentine Camp

On the return trip via the power line trail, I came across a wild boar! He was in a metal cage trap, not at all happy at the situation. Carlton contracts a licensed trapper to remove feral pigs from the reserve. They are sold to game farms or, if sick or injured, are euthanized. A few find there way to the dinner tables of local Floridians.

Caught

By the time I returned to my parked car, I had captured a total of 27 wildflower species. Identifying them however proved to be a lot harder than I expected.  So to help me, I picked up a copy of Audubon Field Guide to Wildflowers at the local book store.

All wildflowers are members of the phylum Angiosperms, which include all flowering plants and trees. But Florida alone is home to over 4000 species of wildflowers!  After considerable effort, I was able to ID the 13 listed below. 



Common Blue Hearts



Common Tickseed

 

Daisy Fleabane

 



Horrible Thistle



 

Lance-Leaved Arrowhead

 



Pickerelweed



 

Pineweed

 



White-Topped Sedge



Yellow Wood Sorel



Yellow Bachelor's Button

Common Beggar Tick

 

Poison Hemlock



Pipewort

 The use of the “macro” mode on my camera allows me to get very close to the subjects (within one inch). The resulting  bigger-than-life images reveal the detail, beauty and complexity of these wildflowers which I had previously been unappreciative of. I know I have truly only scratched the surface of Florida wildflowers. But now, whenever I'm out on a trail, I’ll have another facet of this wonderful Florida biosphere to explore.