First visit to Kissimmee Prairie was a great cleanse after the election results. Good grounding reminder of what is at stake for our fellow kin on this planet. #plants #botany #bugs #florida

Trip to the Apalachicola National Forest and Saint George Island was truly unforgettable. Nothing quite like crossing a palaeobiogeographical boundary. #hiking #nature #plants #florida #botany

Just some of the beautiful finds from my most recent few hikes.
1. Habaneria floribunda (Orchidaceae)
2. Polygala lutea (Polygalaceae)
3. Viola sororia (Violaceae)
4. Lyonia lucida (Ericaceae)

#flowers #plants #florida #botany #ecology #hiking #nature #wildlife

So excited for this latest edition to my field guide library! Can't wait to get out there and find some of these hidden beauties. #wildlife #flower #nature #botany #plants #florida

Some of my favourite finds from this morning's hike! I saw 21 Lilium catesbaei (Pine Lily), which is a new record for me on one hike!
This post is in memory of the gnat that became breakfast for this Drosera capillaris (Pink Sundew) 🥲.
#wildlife #flower #florida #nature #plants

Just saw this beauty on my evening walk (sorry about the low-quality photo)! Made my whole weekend ☺️. I learned recently that Barred Owls (Strix varia) have one of the highest dietary proportions of invertebrates for owls of their size! #birds #ornithology #nature

Beautiful! I think scrub jays are some of the most remarkable birds, and I'm so lucky to live less than an hour from a preserve with a breeding population of Florida Scrub-Jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens). The resemblance is incredible! Throwback to my first time seeing one in the wild:
#birds

Saw these beautiful flowering Lupinus diffusus (Sky-Blue Lupine) on a hike today. Very strange to see them flowering, let alone fruiting, in autumn, then again, the planet is on fire 🥲. Hands down, one of my favourite #Florida native plants. #hiking #botany #plants #climate #flowers

Found this beautiful Stilpnochlora couloniana (Giant katydid) on the Clerodendrum sp. that's planted right outside my apartment. Wonderful way to start the week. Hope everyone has a great day! 💚 #entomology #bugs #floridanature #florida

So sad about the extinction of Bachman's Warbler. This species was a transient native to Florida, which it used as a migration corridor to its winter range in Cuba. The species had a spatially complex life history, making it reliant on multiple ecosystems, and therefore, vulnerable to habitat loss.

Can't wait to get back to my field sites next month! I miss my darling, little Ceratiola babies and am excited to see how they've grown this year. Field work is not a huge component of my job, but that makes it all the more rewarding when I am able to do it! #botany #ecology #science

This week, I learned that one of my beloved study species, Ceratiola ericoides, is a host plant for a beautifully cryptic little species of geometrid moth, Nemoria outina. Will keep my eyes out for larvae during my next field survey!!! Citation: Ferguson, 1985 #botany #ecology #entomology