Florida Nature Fun Poetry - Haiku for Thursday, Feathers, Wind and a Seagull

Florida Nature Fun Poetry - Haiku for Thursday, Feathers, Wind and a Seagull

Florida Haiku, Feather, Wind and Seagull by Kevin Songer

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stout wind today
pull feather from the sand and

out pops a seagull
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Florida Wildflower Haiku & Art, Lyre Leaf Sage, Salvia lyrata

Florida Wildflower Haiku & Art, Lyre Leaf Sage, Salvia lyrata

Florida Wildflower Haiku & Art, Lyre Leaf Sage, Salvia lyrata by Kevin Songer

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native purple blooms
hummingbirds steal a sip and
chase off butterflies
…
Lyre-leaf sage is a Florida native and drought tolerant wildflower I see growing across lawns, along roadsides, in fields, meadows and under the forest canopy.

Lyre-leaf sage leaves are lyre-like in shape with deep purple and green colorings. Their light blue flowers provide nectar for hummers and butterflies. The over-lapping leaves of adjacent lyre leaf sage plants keep other weeds down and provide a neat, well-cropped perennial native ground cover appearance. Lyre leaf sage has been one of my favorite and most reliable green roof plants.

Lyre leaf sage has also been used traditionally as a cancer cure. This healing practice was based on a theory that because the plant quickly spread, creating densely populated patches, it must be a natural cure for likewise rapidly spreading cancers. 

Lyre leaf sage is an amazing Florida native perennial, landscape or green roof plant superb in its attraction to pollinators, hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

Florida Wildflower Haiku & Nature Art, Seaside Oxeye Daisy, Borrichia frutescens

Florida Wildflower Haiku- short verse for Tuesday, Seaside Oxeye Daisy, Borrichia frutescens

Florida Haiku & Nature Art, Seaside Ox-eye, Borrichia frutescens

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sometimes cant tell if
sun bleached oxeye masses or
winged southern whites
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Seaside oxeye daisy is relatively salt tolerant and often grows along brackish channels near the coast. Seaside oxeye daisy faithfully produces scores of yellow aster type flowers that attract many butterflies but especially kaleidoscopes of winged southern whites. I usually find seaside oxeye daisy grown side by side with black mangroves. Wildlife will utilize this plant’s leaves and flower heads for forage when food becomes scarce.

Florida Wildflower Art & Haiku (Senryu), Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra

Florida Wildflower Art & Haiku (Senryu), Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra

Florida Wildflower Haiku, Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra by Kevin Songer

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limestone rock croppings
bees butterflies skipper art
rose gentian drawn
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Tarkiln Bayou State Park, Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra by Kevin Songer

Rose gentian has about a dozen different species found throughout Florida (Sabatia spp.). 

Tarkiln Bayou State Park, Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra by Kevin Songer

Rose gentian’s flowers are rich in purple and pink hues. When in full summer bloom, Sabatia can fill a roadside drainage swale with incredible swaths of pink and purple. 

Tarkiln Bayou State Park, Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra by Kevin Songer

Some accounts may exist where early settlers dried Sabatia root and then brewed a chicory-like coffee with the plant parts. This may be a historical carry over from traditions in Europe where the same was practiced with great yellow gentian, Gentiana lutea.

Florida Wildflower Haiku - Short Verse for Sunday, Wild petunia, Ruellia caroliniensis

Florida Wildflower Haiku - Short Verse for Sunday, Wild petunia, Ruellia caroliniensis

Florida Wildflower Haiku - Short Verse & Art, Wild Petunia, Ruellia caroliniensis by Kevin Songer

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purple bloom nectar
attracts pollinators all,
far into scrub woods
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Wild petunia is always a surprise to discover growing in the woods as the plant and flower brings an aura of nice-neat cultivation to rough and ramble undergrowth. Wild petunia is a cousin of the more invasive Mexican petunia yet wild petunia is a prized Florida native wildflower and does not grow in an invasive manner. The common buckeye and white peacock butterflies seek out wild petunia as larval host plant.

Florida haiku - senryu for first fall Saturday morning; Seaside goldenrod and Mangrove buckeye.

Florida haiku - senryu for first fall Saturday morning; Seaside goldenrod and Mangrove buckeye.

Florida Nature Poetry, Seaside Goldenrod, Mangrove Buckeye by Kevin Songer

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harvest goldenrod
mangrove buckeye both bargain,
anticipate first frost
...

Florida Nature Poetry - Senryu for Friday! Snowy Egrets & Sanibel

Florida Nature Poetry - Senryu for Friday! Snowy Egrets & Sanibel

Florida Poetry, Haiku - Senryu, Sanibel & Snowy Egrets by Kevin Songer 

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sanibel traffic
hit the causeway early for
best picnic table
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Florida Nature Art & Poetry, Annona glabra, Pond Apple

Florida nature poetry and art; Pond apple, Annona glabra.

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alligator grunts
gobbling down a couple
meh tasting green fruits
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Pond apple trees, like pop ash and black gum grow up out of the deep and dark swamp depths, producing apple-like fruits eaten by alligators and other wildlife. I would describe pond apple fruit’s taste as more ‘blah-bland’ than tasty, but some do make jellies and jams from the fruit. Pond apple provides habitat for wildlife, birds, orchids and bromeliads. Fort Myers' Six Mile Cypress boardwalk is a great place to experience pond apple up close.

Florida Nature Poetry & Art, Candyroot, Polygala nana

Florida nature senryu - haiku for mid week, Candyroot, Polygala nana.

Florida Wildflower Poetry, Haiku, Senryu, Candyroot, Polygala nana by Kevin Songer

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I know I shouldn’t
pull plant and sniff candyroot,
but no one’s looking
…

Candyroot calls to everyone who has ever pulled up the plant to experience the strong aromatic spicy scent of the roots. Interestingly, candyroot requires ants to collect the plant’s seeds for the food value of the seed's coating. Once underground, the seeds then germinate up through the ant's bed. Candyroot’s yellow flowers sit atop stalks rising from a basal rosette of succulent-like leaves.

Haiku - Senryu Poetry, Florida Wildflowers, Purple False Foxglove, Agalinis purpurea

Florida Wildflower Poetry, False Foxglove Senryu, Agalinis purpurea

Florida Wildflower Haiku - Senryu Short Verse Art, False Foxglove by Kevin Songer

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false foxglove marsh
ruby throated hummingbird charm
break sonic sound barrier
…

False foxglove's mauve blooms in mass covering a wet field are truly a spectacular sight in color and texture.  

False foxglove (Agalinis spp.) can be seen growing along roadsides, in cleared or disturbed lots and pastures or fields.  The plant prefers slightly damp, sandy soils.

 As with other trumpet shaped flowers, False foxglove’s blooms are sought out by hummingbirds.  Did you know a group of hummingbirds is called a 'charm'.  Charming!

Friday Wildflower Art & Short Verse, Rayless Sunflower, Helianthus radula

Wildflower Haiku, Rayless sunflower, Helianthus radula

Floria Wildflower Haiku Art, Rayless Sunflower, Helianthus radula by Kevin Songer

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wet ditch oddity
deep maroon pyres reach high
swallowtails alight
...

Rayless sunflower is a bit of an oddity standing erect like black eyed Susans and echinacea but lacking petals. Rayless sunflower’s head is composed of a collection of small brown florets and the plant is a member of the Helianthus (sunflower) genus. I usually see rayless sunflower growing alongside of wet drainage ditches and along the margins of shallow sloping ponds. Despite a lack of petals, rayless sunflower attracts many different pollinators.  I find the plant’s stark structural appearance to be an interesting addition to a wet area landscape and an inspiration for nature art.

Florida Wildflower Haiku, Butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa

Florida wildflower haiku for Thursday; Butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa

Florida wildflower haiku, Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa by Kevin Songer

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milkweeds toxin sap
eaten by Monarch larvae
hungry birds disdain
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Butterfly weed (also known as 'milkweed') provides nectar for many pollinators, including butterflies and hummingbirds. Butterfly weed likes to grow in sandy soils and is a larval host plant for the Queen and Monarch butterflies. Interestingly, milkweed contains sap substances that are sometimes toxic to birds. Some butterflies have taken advantage of this toxicity by laying eggs on milkweed in order for the hungry larvae to ingest leaves full of these toxins, which fill their body with a taste predator birds disdain ultimately providing the larvae and young butterflies with much needed protection.

Florida Nature Poetry, Sea Oats

Florida native plant short verse for Wednesday. Sea oats, Uniola paniculata

Florida Nature Haiku, Sea Oats, Kevin Songer

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mice, birds and bunnies
tasty seeds eat, summer grub
when no chips are around
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Sea oats are a protected grass found growing along the Gulf and Atlantic seashores, primarily across the sand dunes. Sea oats provide important forage for beach mice and shorebirds as well as shelter. Their roots help stabilize dunes, preventing erosion. As a child I always possessed a strong desire to grab a handful of seeds off the plant and I’m not sure if this was because I was always told not to pick them or because it looked like a fun thing to do. Sea oats are some of the only native plants to grow in the harsh salt laden environment, close to water's edge and as such provide important communal and foraging habitat to wildlife.

Florida Short Poetry, Wildflowers and Haiku

Sea beans
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prickly liana
spiny pods nest lustrous beans,
wait for sea pearls' fall
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Gray Nickerbean, Caesalpina bonduc,
Kevin Songer Florida Nature Artist

Rare Miami Blue and Nickerbean Blue butterfly larvae feed heavily of the foliage of Gray Nickerbean whose seed pods are as outrageously beautiful as the lustrous seeds nested inside.  The maritime loving Gray Nickerbean liana aggressively grows into a rambling, impenetrable hedge before flowering and dropping its gray beans onto the seashore.  With the seasons, tides and sargassum flotsam, Gray Nickerbeans travel around the world, carried hence by La Mar.  Sea Beans, also know as Sea Pearls have been used by peoples for jewelry, medicine and artisan wood inlays for millennia. 

Florida Short Verse, Coontie, Zamia spp. #haiku

Zamia
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cones and leaves nourish
rare atala larvae host,
butterfly bitters
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Coontie, Zamia spp.; Florida Native plant and Wildflower Haiku by Kevin

So much to say about coontie, a marvelous Florida native cycad.  Look for more coontie short verse in my upcoming second volume of Florida Short Verse!

Elderberry, Sambucus nigra, Florida Wildflower and Native Plant Poetry and Art

Florida Wildflower Poetry and Art, Elderberry

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elderberry jam
jar lips' purple goo
absurd not to lick
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Elderberry has been revered as an important plant for centuries.  Hippocrates as well as many others throughout history spoke of elder's ability to feed and heal.  The purple berries and flowers have been found to be effective in combating influenza and in also making delicious jams and pies.  Elder grows well in a variety of soils and provides communal and foraging to pollinators and small mammals alike.

Toad flax and dock, Linaria canadensis and Rumex spp.

Toadflax and sorrel, Linaria canadensis and Rumex spp.

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toad flax and sour weed
roadside kaleidoscope
mower comes too soon
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Florida Wildflower Short Verse, Turkey Tangled Frog Fruit, Phyla nodiflora

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fruit frog eyelash high

turkey leg vines wrap, purple

green earth trip trap

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