So, with a new lease on life, I'm heading south for most of the month of January. And while I hear tell that El Nino will be dragging cold fronts through the sunshine state on regular intervals this winter, I have no concerns as I like rain and sun both equally. In any case, wildlands walks are always a major part of my itinerary when down there (or anywhere) and this will be no exception. One of the things that really jumped out at me when I first started noticing was the surprising (to me anyway) amount of overlap between wetland emergent and floating vegetation up here in Wisconsin and way down in S. Florida. In many cases, exactly the same plants! So, especially common down there and one of my all-around favorites is pickerel weed-Pontederia cordata. It seems to do exceedingly well down thataway. Love that plant. But there's more: Cattails-well, where don't cattails grow, lol. Arrowhead, or Sagittaria latifolia is well represented also, albeit, it may not be latifolia necessarily, but in any case, a closely related species.

One plant not native to Florida but which has been there since the Spanish explorers came and left all those hundreds of years ago is water lettuce-Pistia stratiotes. Actually, there's some controversy over whether this plant is or is not native there, but either way, it's a real charmer, albeit occasionally controlled in wild areas to allow something else a chance to grow. I find it very attractive. I've also learned that this far-southern plant has actually made it all the way up to my part of the world, but in and on the Mississippi River, not over here in the eastern portion of my state. Some fish species make good use of water lettuce as cover.

One we sure don't have up here, but which is common down there is alligator flag-Thalia geniculata. In case its' not obvious, I'm getting excited to get back down there and tromp around!

+oM