Gardens Blog
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
Happy June, EcoFlora participants! We are now in the second half of our May-June Ecoquest, “Mustard Madness!” To learn more about mustards and why we should be mad for them, the EcoFlora team looked to one of the expert botanists here at Marie Selby Botanical...
Most of us are familiar with the sight and taste of cabbage, broccoli, kale, radishes, turnips, and mustards on our dinner plates. But did you know that these vegetables–collectively known as cruciferous vegetables–are all related? These plants are members of the...
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ Sarasota-Manatee EcoFlora Project is seeking partners and participants for this year's City Nature Challenge. The City Nature Challenge is an international effort to get people outside to document their local biodiversity. Over the...
Ferns provide a variety of contributions to the ecosystems in which they exist. For example, they provide shelter, shade, erosion protection, chemical sequestration, and microhabitats that serve other species. In addition, there is also a high demand for ferns in the...
Dr. Emily Sessa is currently an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Florida. Research in the Sessa Lab focuses broadly on plant systematics and understanding the evolutionary and ecological processes that shape plant diversity. In this interview we...
The EcoFlora project is kicking of 2022 with our new EcoQuest, Finding Florida Ferns! This EcoQuest will take place during January and February with the goal of observing as many local ferns as possible and help citizen scientists in effectively identifying fern...
As we come to the end of our second year with the EcoFlora project we wanted to share some highlights and statistics from a variety of our projects. We are thankful to our volunteers for their valuable contributions to citizen science and hope these observations...
Florida’s large airplants (Tillandsia utriculata, T. fasciculata, Guzmania monostachia, and others) have been under attack for over three decades by an invasive pest called the Mexican bromeliad weevil (Metamasius callizona). The weevil chews holes in the leaf bases...
Florida has 16 species of native bromeliads, 12 of which are in the genus Tillandsia. Eight are found in Sarasota and Manatee County. The other four species are from counties south and unlikely to be found in our area. For our November and December EcoQuests, we are...
Each month EcoFlora Sarasota-Manatee holds at least one BioBlitz in relation to our monthly EcoQuest. For September and October our EcoQuest, Asters All Around, has focused on plant species in the Asteraceae, or sunflower, family. On September 24th our EcoFlora team...