One of my goals for my backyard habitat is to have as many of Central Florida’s endangered and threatened plants as is practical. Another is to provide food and other resources from my habitat. I’ll blog on my successes and failures. I’ll ask for your help & I might just offer some suggestions for your Backyard Wildlife Habitat..
There are three blogs already waiting to be written; The Keep Seminole Beautiful Mico-Buzzary; The Threatened Seminole Pumpkin; and the Endangered Florida Wild Cotton. I’ll start with the Wild Florida Cotton.
One of KSB’s Business Friends, the South Seminole Farm and Nursery, provided me with a small Florida Wild Cotton plant last year. My daughter, Carolyn, planted a native plant butterfly garden as her Senior project this Spring. Among the plants she chose was the Cotton plant. We are incorporating Carolyn’s Garden into our “Backyard Habitat.”
This is a very beautiful plant with interesting uses in herbal medicine. The roots and seeds have been used for dysentery, diarrhea, hemorrhoids, as a diuretic, to induce abortions, nasal polyps, asthma, uterine fibroids and even certain cancers.
The USDA attempted to wipe this plant out in Florida in the early 1900s due to the idea it was a host to the boll weevil. It is listed as endangered by the state of Florida.1
By cultivating the Florida Wild Cotton plant it will contribute to wildlife habitat, biodiversity, and your soil’s stability.
Watch for the next post it will be about the Threatened Species Plant the “Seminole Pumpkin.”
1 http://www.regionalconservation.org/beta/nfyn/plantdetail.asp?tx=Gosshirshirs
Certified Wildlife Habitat # 124051
Well I just had my backyard certified as a Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation : ) This is a project in the works … a real learning opportunity.
I actually started this project after the April 25 “Parade of Gardens” around the 18th Street Park that was a part of Keep Seminole Beautiful’s Earth Day Everyday Celebration. One of those gardens open to the public was renowned environmental writer, author and documentary filmmaker, Bill Belleville. His was a self-described “Un-garden.” His garden was beautiful and far more real than any of the others ~ I’m sure Bill inspired many of us that day.
My backyard is large about 130 by 60 feet. The yard has a 6 foot wooden fence on the North side ~ there is a canopy as you walk along the fence to my back yard, the East side has a 6 foot wood fence along most of it, but a 10 foot or so section was knocked down in Charlie and my neighbor chose not to replace it. My two East side neighbors have dense tree and brush along the fence that protrudes over the fence. I have about 50% with trees, bushes, flowers and a variety of ground covers. On the South side my neighbor has a 4 foot chain link fence on the back half of the lot. It’s open between our garage and our neighbors’ house on the South. During the summer it requires a couple of hours a week to mow it. I also have to edge it a couple of times a year.
Watch for the next post it will be about my endangered “Wild Florida Cotton” plant. But for now can you help me? What is the name of the insect I took a picture of on my cotton plant?