Today we spent time at the Wiregrass Prairie Preserve south-west of New Smyrna Beach. The main trail (at least for the orange trail) winds through a prairie and into pines. This is a grassland habitat that is dependent on fire to keep it this way. As you look to the sides of the trail through the prairie one side is almost entirely grasses (blue-stemmed grasses and wiregrass) while the other side of the trail is dominated by small oaks and palmettos.
Searching carefully between the grasses you can find an array of terrestrial lichens (like the Cladonia confusa)and a great variety of small plants (like the Round-leafed bluet, Houstonia procumbens).
The sandy trail also had a variety of insects like this grasshopper, which I have not identified yet.
Once into the pine forest where the trail rapidly became very wet with a lot of Sphagnum, we were lucky to find a pink sundew.
All of the sandy soils, even when wet had a lot of “The Deceiver” a pretty little mushroom.
When we switched to another part of the preserve we found this cute little Southern cricket frog.
The trail had a few butterflies in the sunny patches, the the Carolina Satyr.
A final item of interest on this trail was an Aminita.
That’s all for today, maybe more tomorrow.
Michael's Place 