Ruellia caroliniana (Wild Petunia) is a beautiful native wildflower that is currently blooming its heart out. Other species (Ruellia purshiana) of this plant have already bloomed this year. This plant is in the Acanthaceae family which also hosts several other native plants to Alabama, including Justicia americana (American Water Willow). 

Hyla cinerea (Green Tree Frog) hanging out with Pontederia cordata (Pickerel Weed) in Historic Blakely State Park. Pickerel weed is a vigorous, deciduous, emergent marginal aquatic perennial that typically grows 2-4’ tall. It is native to quiet waters at stream and pond margins from Nova Scotia south to Florida and Alabama. In the wild, it is frequently seen growing in dense colonies. Glossy, narrow, arrowhead-shaped green leaves (to 10” long) have rounded cordate bases and rise well above the water surface. Tiny, tubular soft blue flowers are densely packed into erect, 3-6” long spikes atop flower stalks typically rising 1-2’ above the water surface. Plants flower freely from late May to October. Flowers give way to starchy seeds with distinctive toothed ridges. Flower spikes droop after bloom, releasing the distinctive seeds into the water. Seeds are edible off the plant or can be dried and added to granola cereals. Dragonflies and damselflies commonly lay their eggs on plant stems near the water surface.

Kalmia hirsuta (Hairy Wicky) is one of my new favorite names in botany. This shrub is one that is not common and was once state listed as threatened by Alabama. I love the common name of this plant. Hairy Wicky...why do I like it so much?? I do not know. Closely related to Kalmia latifolia (Moutain Laurel - see previous postings for image) a more common shrub in northern Alabama, this shrub is much less likely to be encountered and is typically only a coastal plain species.

Turkey Beard (Xerophyllum asphodeloides) has dense clusters of creamy, star-like flowers that bloom from May to July. Flowering on stalks two to four feet high, they are tough, elegant members of the lily family. The mostly basal leaves are thin (grass-like), elongated and up to two feet long. They form a tussock at the base of the plant. The genus name, xerophyllum, is from the Greek words xeros ("dry") and phyllon ("leaf") and refers to the dry, wiry leaves that compose that tussock.

NatureServe, a non-profit conservation organization, reports that they are ranked "vulnerable" in North Carolina and Tennessee. They are ranked as critically imperiled in South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. They are believed to have been extirpated from Delaware and perhaps from Kentucky.

I found this new population of Turkey Beard on the Shoal Creek Ranger District of the Talladega National Forest (near Heflin, AL.) Known populations were documented from the area, but on opposing ridgetops a quarter of a mile away.