Pine Rockland Research Articles

Comparing Ant Activity and Plants Bearing Extrafloral Nectaries in Rockland Habitats of the Florida Keys with Those of the Everglades and the Bahamas

Rocklands are present in South Florida, both on the peninsula and in the Keys. Previous work has shown that extrafloral nectaries on pine rockland plants in the Florida Everglades and surrounding areas play a role in attracting ant protectors. Species with nectaries are more abundant and ant activity greater in more recently burned pine rockland habitats compared with longer undisturbed rockland hammock forest. The floristic composition and prevailing climate of Keys rocklands differs substantially from those on the mainland, so we sought to investigate ant activity and the abundance of plants with extrafloral nectaries in Big Pine Key rockland habitats. Standard baiting methods were used to assess ant abundance and potential predation activity in hardwood hammock, shrubby pine rockland, and open pine rockland sites. Ant activity was the lowest in open pine rockland, greatest in hardwood hammock, and intermediate in shrubby pine rockland, the opposite of what has been observed in previous studies in southern peninsular Florida and on Andros, Bahamas. Sampling vegetation at these same sites revealed a larger proportion of plant species with extrafloral nectaries in the pine rocklands than the hammock, as observed previously in Everglades habitats. Possible reasons for differences in ant activity in Keys rockland habitats are discussed.

The large‐scale restoration of fire and water regimes in Everglades National Park reveal little change in plant diversity along an elevational gradient

Quantifying the response of plant diversity to large‐scale restoration is essential for measuring management success. One of the world's largest restoration efforts began in 2000 in the Everglades ecosystem in Florida, United States, through the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. In coordination with ongoing fire management, this restoration effort aims to restore natural hydrologic and fire regimes in this dynamic ecosystem. Restored water and fire regimes in the Everglades interact along an elevational gradient between seasonally inundated marl prairie and frequently burned pine rockland on Long Pine Key in Everglades National Park. To determine the impact of management on plant community richness and composition, we resampled transects spanning the elevational gradient between marl prairie and pine rockland initially sampled prior to the implementation of current restoration efforts (circa 1997–1999). We measured percent plant cover and developed generalized linear mixed models to determine the effects of fire frequency, average water depth, and elevation on plant species richness and composition across the two time periods. Additionally, we used species‐level random effects to examine how individual species respond to each environmental variable. We failed to detect any systematic shifts in plant composition in response to fire and water management. However, we found that complex interactions between fire and water structure plant composition and maximize species richness along gradients of water depth and elevation, with low, moderate, and high burn frequencies increasing richness in wet, moderately wet, and dry sites, respectively.

The Nighttime Fragrance of Guettarda scabra (Rubiaceae): Flower Scent and Its Implications for Moth Pollination.

Floral scent is crucial for attracting pollinators, especially in plants that bloom at night. However, chemical profiles of flowers from nocturnal plants with varied floral morphs are poorly documented, limiting our understanding of their pollination ecology. We investigated the floral scent in Guettarda scabra (L.) Vent. (Rubiaceae), a night-blooming species with short- and long-styled floral morphs, found in the threatened pine rocklands in south Florida, US. By using dynamic headspace sampling and GC-MS analysis, we characterized the chemical profiles of the floral scent in both morphs. Neutral red staining was also employed to determine the specific floral regions responsible for scent emission in G. scabra. The results revealed that G. scabra's fragrance consists entirely of benzenoid and terpenoid compounds, with benzeneacetaldehyde and (E)-β-ocimene as dominant components. There were no differences in the chemical profiles between the long- and short-styled flowers. Staining assays indicated that the corolla lobes, anthers, and stigma were the primary sources of the scent. These findings indicate that G. scabra's floral scent is consistent with that of night-blooming plants pollinated by nocturnal hawkmoths, providing important insights into its chemical ecology and pollinator attraction. This study demonstrates how floral scent chemistry can validate predictions based on flower morphology in hawkmoth-pollinated plants.

The Life History and Ecology of the Lesser Wasp Moth, Pseudocharis minima, (Lepidoptera, Erebidae, Euchromiina) in the Pine Rocklands of South Florida

The Arctiinae species Pseudocharis minima (Lesser Wasp Moth) is considered imperiled according to Florida Natural Areas Inventory but little had been published on its life history. We describe the life history of the Lesser Wasp Moth descriptively and quantitatively while providing images of eggs, larval instars, pupae, and adults. We describe a variance in the number of larval instars from 6 to 8. We also report the first field observations of Lesser Wasp Moths utilizing Crossopetalum rhcoma (Maidenberry) for egg laying and larval consumption. The mean life-cycle duration is ∼61 days and can provide about 6 generations in a single year. We anticipate that our research will aid in the management of native pine rockland habitats for the Lesser Wasp Moth as well as laying the groundwork for conservation efforts in the event of possible further population declines.

Fragmentation disrupts microbial effects on native plant community productivity

Abstract Anthropogenic habitat fragmentation—the breaking up of natural landscapes—is a pervasive threat to biodiversity and ecosystem function world‐wide. Fragmentation results in a mosaic of remnant native habitat patches embedded in human‐modified habitat known as the ‘matrix’. By introducing novel environmental conditions in matrix habitats and reducing connectivity of native habitats, fragmentation can dramatically change how organisms experience their environment. The effects of fragmentation can be especially important in urban landscapes, which are expanding across the globe. Despite this surging threat and the importance of microbiomes for ecosystem services, we know very little about how fragmentation affects microbiomes and even less about their consequences for plant–microbe interactions in urban landscapes. By combining field surveys, microbiome sequencing and experimental mesocosms, we (1) investigated how microbial community diversity, composition and functional profiles differed between 15 native pine rockland fragments and the adjacent urban matrix habitat, (2) identified habitat attributes that explained significant variation in microbial diversity of native core habitat compared to urban matrix and (3) tested how changes in urbanized and low connectivity microbiomes affected plant community productivity. We found urban and native microbiomes differed substantively in diversity, composition and functional profiles, including symbiotic fungi decreasing 81% and pathogens increasing 327% in the urban matrix compared to native habitat. Furthermore, fungal diversity rapidly declined as native habitats became increasingly isolated, with ~50% of variation across the landscape explained by habitat connectivity alone. Interestingly, microbiomes from native habitats increased plant productivity by ~300% while urban matrix microbiomes had no effect, suggesting that urbanization may decouple beneficial plant–microbe interactions. In addition, microbial diversity within native habitats explained significant variation in plant community productivity, with higher productivity linked to more diverse microbiomes from more connected, larger fragments. Synthesis. Taken together, our study not only documents significant changes in microbial diversity, composition and functions in the urban matrix, but also supports that two aspects of habitat fragmentation—the introduction of a novel urban matrix and reduced habitat connectivity—disrupt microbial effects on plant community productivity, highlighting preservation of native microbiomes as critical for productivity in remnant fragments.

The Movement Ecology of Mutualism (CSEE/ESA 2022, OOS17)

The Movement Ecology of Mutualism (<scp>CSEE</scp>/<scp>ESA</scp> 2022, <scp>OOS17</scp>)

Management of a Globally Imperiled and Fire-Dependent Ecosystem in the Urban Matrix of Miami–Dade County, Florida: A Case Study of the Richmond Tract Pine Rocklands

Pine rockland habitat of South Florida is among the most highly threatened terrestrial ecosystems in the neo-subtropics and is among the rarest worldwide. With only 1.2% of its original extent remaining outside Everglades National Park, fewer than 780 hectares of this ecosystem remains across all of South Florida. This fire-dependent ecosystem—habitat for many rare, endemic species—has experienced substantial deforestation and defaunation due to urbanization, land use change, habitat fragmentation, fire suppression, and exotic plant invasions. Owing to the small size of remaining fragments, and the fact that most are surrounded by urbanization, adequate burning regimes are suppressed. The Richmond Tract, a complex of twelve separate parcels under multiple private and public ownership partially surrounding Zoo Miami, is the largest tract of pine rockland outside the federal protection of Everglades National Park. In this article, we take inventory of the threatened biodiversity at the Richmond Tract and focus on the policy and management landscape. We take a close look at threats to the pine rockland’s persistence here and review approaches that either help maintain the health of this ecosystem or those that may need to be reconsidered. We end by discussing coordination among multiple stakeholder groups, the potential use for incentive-based conservation practices, and suggesting ways to improve management in highly urbanized South Florida.

More than Moths: Flower Visitors of a Night-Blooming Plant in South Florida Pine Rocklands, USA.

Plants whose flowers open at night but remain open during the day also attract diurnal flower visitors, potentially boosting their pollination rates and providing resources that can support diverse arthropod communities. The rough-leaf velvetseed, Guettarda scabra (Rubiaceae), is an evergreen shrub that thrives only in the imperiled pine rockland habitat in south Florida. Its white, tubular, and fragrant flowers open during late afternoon, exhibiting traits strongly associated with the attraction of nocturnal hawkmoths (Sphingidae). Flowers of G. scabra remain open until the following morning, becoming available to a wider array of visitors, bringing into question the expectation that sphingophilous flowers are visited mainly by hawkmoths. To evaluate whether the flowers of G. scabra are mainly visited by nocturnal hawkmoths and understand the role of this plant in the pine rockland habitat, we characterized the arthropod fauna associated with its flowers during the morning, evening, and at night. We found that most flower visitors were diurnal insects of the orders Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera, although we observed other arthropod groups too. Visitation at night was dominated by two species of hawkmoths. Nectar was the main resource used by the arthropod community during this study. Legitimate visitation and nectar-robbing were the behaviors most frequently observed among the flower visitors. Our results suggest that flowers of the night-blooming G. scabra constitute an important food source for both diurnal and nocturnal arthropod fauna in the fire-dependent pine rocklands of southern Florida. Our study provides novel data to support efforts to conserve and protect pine rocklands and the plants and animals that inhabit them.

Native ectomycorrhizal fungi from the endangered pine rocklands are superior symbionts to commercial inoculum for slash pine seedlings.

The south Florida pine rocklands is a critically endangered, fire-dependent ecosystem dominated by the overstory tree Pinus densa (South Florida slash pine). Because pine recruitment in this ecosystem has proven problematic, restoration efforts need to include replanting slash pine trees. Even though ectomycorrhizal fungi are known to be critical symbionts of young pines and are necessary for the development of healthy pines, virtually nothing is known about these mutualists and their role in pine establishment and survival in the pine rocklands. One approach to improve pine establishment is to grow seedlings in a nursery before outplanting, facilitating early associations with ectomycorrhizae, and therefore improving seedling health. In this study, we compared health metrics (height, stem diameter, final needle length, root length, root colonization, needle greenness, root volume, and root:shoot ratio) of seedlings grown in soil amended with five commercially available mycorrhizal inocula versus field soil collected from three pine rockland fragments. Seedlings grown with native field soil from the pine rocklands generally performed better than those grown with commercial inoculum in all metrics except root length. According to their labels, each commercial inoculum contained between 4 and 10 ectomycorrhizal fungi species. However, no ectomycorrhizal fungi were recovered from two of the inoculum products and only three ectomycorrhizal fungi in total were recovered from the other three products. In contrast, seedlings grown with field soil are associated with ten ectomycorrhizal species. Our results highlight the importance of incorporating native ectomycorrhizal fungi into pine seedling replanting as part of restoration efforts in the pine rocklands.

Facilitated fecundity in sand flax: Pollination in an endangered herb of pine rocklands

Reproductive success in flowering plants depends on floral biology, breeding system, and availability of compatible mates and pollinators. Here, we examine the pollination biology of Linum arenicola (Small) H.J.P Winkler (Linaceae), sand flax, a federally endangered herb of pine rocklands in the Lower Florida Keys (USA). We observed the timing of floral anthesis, fruiting, florivory, and frequency of flower visits by insects. We compared fruiting in flowers that were open-pollinated, bagged to exclude floral visitors, and self-pollinated by hand to determine whether pollinator visits enhance or are necessary for reproduction. Fruit set was equally high between flowers open to pollinators and those that were hand-pollinated, but both were significantly higher compared to flowers from which pollinators were excluded. We observed that the wilting of petals late in the day in unvisited flowers often initiates self-pollination, but flowers are frequently visited by small bees and flies earlier in the day, suggesting that early day visits by those insects increase pollen deposition and potential for outcrossing. Despite high fruit set from autonomous self-pollination and occasional flower visitation, sexual reproduction is limited by herbivores: nearly half of all flowers produced were consumed by Key deer and galling midges. Optimum fruit set is not achieved from autonomous selfing alone, and pollinators play an important role in fruit production of the rare sand flax. Conservation efforts that enhance populations of suitable pollinators could increase the likelihood of fruit set from a diversity of pollen parents in rare plants like the endangered sand flax.

Burrow Characteristics and Habitat Associations of Gopher Tortoises in Urban Pine Rockland Reserves (Miami, Florida, USA)

The Gopher Tortoise is a keystone species and a species of conservation concern in the southeastern United States, but the biology of tortoises at the extreme southeastern limit of the range is poorly understood. We examined physical characteristics and habitat associations of Gopher Tortoise burrows in pine rockland natural preserves in the highly urbanized Miami-Dade County (Florida, USA). We measured width, depth, and orientation of burrows at two sites. We compared a suite of 11 habitat features (e.g., canopy cover, understory density, ground cover, soil depth, and soil compaction) at random points and at Gopher Tortoise burrows in each of the two sites. Burrow widths were similar between sites and included burrows of both adults and juveniles—evidence that both populations are reproducing. Burrows were very short (most <2 m) compared to burrow lengths reported from other sites (>4 m), likely because soil depth is very shallow in extreme south Florida. We used multidimensional scaling and analysis of similarity to detect differences in habitat variables among sites, among point types (random points and burrows), and between active and inactive burrows. Low leaf litter cover, high grass cover, low canopy cover, and deep soil were among the major variables associated with all burrows and active burrows. The habitat associations of the burrows were similar to studies from other areas, yet the short burrows and association with the deepest available soils appear to be a strong response to the unique geology of pine rockland habitats. We discuss vegetative associations of Gopher Tortoises in the context of management in urban natural areas and implications for protection of Gopher Tortoises at the southern limit of their geographic range.

Simulated hurricane-induced changes in light and nutrient regimes change seedling performance in Everglades forest-dominant species.

Wind damage from cyclones can devastate the forest canopy, altering environmental conditions in the understory that affect seedling growth and plant community regeneration. To investigate the impact of hurricane‐induced increases in light and soil nutrients as a result of canopy defoliation, we conducted a two‐way factorial light and nutrient manipulation in a shadehouse experiment. We measured seedling growth of the dominant canopy species in the four Everglades forest communities: pine rocklands (Pinus elliottii var densa), cypress domes (Taxodium distichum), hardwood hammocks, and tree islands (Quercus virginiana and Bursera simaruba). Light levels were full sun and 50% shade, and nutrient levels coupled with an additional set of individuals that were subjected to a treatment mimicking the sudden effects of canopy opening from hurricane‐induced defoliation and the corresponding nutrient pulse. Seedlings were measured weekly for height growth and photosynthesis, with seedlings being harvested after 16 weeks for biomass, leaf area, and leaf tissue N and 13C isotope ratio. Growth rates and biomass accumulation responded more to differences in soil nutrients than differences in light availability, with largest individuals being in the high nutrient treatments. For B. simaruba and P. elliottii, the highest photosynthetic rates occurred in the high light, high nutrient treatment, while T. distichum and Q. virginiana photosynthetic rates were highest in low light, high nutrient treatment. Tissue biomass allocation patterns remained similar across treatments, except for Q. virginiana, which altered above‐ and belowground biomass allocation to increase capture of limiting soil and light resources. In response to the hurricane simulation treatment, height growth increased rapidly for Q. virginiana and B. simaruba, with nonsignificant increases for the other two species. We show here that ultimately, hurricane‐adapted, tropical species may be more likely to recolonize the forest canopy following a large‐scale hurricane disturbance.

Comparing global and local maps of the Caribbean pine forests of Andros, home of the critically endangered Bahama Oriole.

Forest loss is occurring at alarming rates across the globe. The pine rockland forests of Andros, The Bahamas, likely represent some of the largest stands of Bahamian subspecies of Caribbean pine in the world. Given the unique species that inhabit these pine forests, such as the endemic and critically endangered Bahama Oriole, monitoring habitats on Andros is crucial to inform conservation planning. We developed a 2019 land classification map to assess the status of nine terrestrial habitats on Andros. Our Random Forest classification model predicted habitat classes with high overall accuracy. Caribbean pine was the dominant land class making up roughly one-third of the total terrestrial area. Whereas much of the pine forest area was found as small patches, most were close to other patches of pine suggesting isolation of forest patches is low. We compared our known intact forest areas to recent forest loss identified by the Hansen et al. Global Forest Change product and assessed areas of habitat disturbance in high-resolution imagery. Our results suggest that this global map overpredicted forest loss on Andros. The small degree of true forest loss on Andros was driven mostly by anthropogenic activity. A cross-tabulation of the Hansen forest loss with fire data showed that understory fires were frequently associated with falsely classified deforestation. Given the threats of climate change to this open forest type-intensifying fire regimes, strengthening hurricanes, and sea level rise-monitoring changes in open forest extent is a critical task across the Caribbean region and the world.

Tree-Ring Based Reconstruction of Historical Fire in an Endangered Ecosystem in the Florida Keys

Big Pine Key, Florida, is home to one of Earth’s largest swaths of the critically-endangered dry forests. Known as pine rocklands, this fire-adapted ecosystem must experience regular fire to persist and remain healthy. Pine rocklands are composed of a sole canopy species: the South Florida slash pine (Pinus elliottii var. densa), along with a dense understory of various woody and herbaceous species, and minimal surface moisture and soil development. Slash pine record wildfire activity of the surrounding area via fire scars preserved within the annual tree rings formed by the species. Our study used dendrochronology to investigate the fire history of the pine rocklands on Big Pine Key, specifically within and around the National Key Deer Refuge (NKDR) because it is the largest segment of unfragmented pine rockland on the island. We combined the results found within the NKDR with those of a previous study completed in 2011, and incorporated historical documents and reports of prescribed and natural fires through November 2019 into our evaluation of fire history on Big Pine Key. We conclude that prescribed burning practices are vital to truly restore natural fire behavior, and repeated burning on these islands in the future must be prioritized.

A Historical Floristic Inventory of Pine Rockland Fabaceae (Leguminosae)

The pine rocklands of southern Florida are an imperiled habitat as the higher, drier areas of land have been steadily developed over the last century. Little of the original extent of this unique ecosystem remains today, with much of it in remnant fragments affected by surrounding development. With this study, we sought to investigate temporal changes in diversity of pine rockland Fabaceae induced by anthropogenic factors. We provide a status update for Fabaceae taxa, a diverse and important group of plants in pine rocklands. Herbarium collections (1339 records) spanning 175 y (from 1830 to 2015) were used to analyze the species frequency and richness of plants collected. The results indicated temporal fluctuations in collection diversity with frequency of native species highest prior to the year 1920, and nonnative legume richness increasing with the decades. The accompanying species list resulting from the inventory included 119 Fabaceae species, in 52 genera, with an additional 18 species not previously listed for pine rocklands. Many other studies have documented the change in pine rockland cover and its extreme extent of habitat loss and fragmentation as the result of human development and population growth. The results of this study document the indirect effects of human habitation on remnant natural areas, as evidenced by collections from Miami-Dade County, with exotic invasives increasingly represented over time. The results also document the historical distributions of collections of Fabaceae species, helpful to conservation and restoration efforts in the globally imperiled pine rocklands of southern Florida.

Microbiome-mediated effects of habitat fragmentation on native plant performance.

Habitat fragmentation is a leading cause of biodiversity and ecosystem function loss in the Anthropocene. Despite the importance of plant-microbiome interactions to ecosystem productivity, we have limited knowledge of how fragmentation affects microbiomes and even less knowledge of its consequences for microbial interactions with plants. Combining field surveys, microbiome sequencing, manipulative experiments, and random forest models, we investigated fragmentation legacy effects on soil microbiomes in imperiled pine rocklands, tested how compositional shifts across 14 fragmentation-altered soil microbiomes affected performance and resource allocation of three native plant species, and identified fragmentation-responding microbial families underpinning plant performance. Legacies of habitat fragmentation were associated with significant changes in microbial diversity and composition (across three of four community axes). Experiments showed plants often strongly benefited from the microbiome's presence, but fragmentation-associated changes in microbiome composition also significantly affected plant performance and resource allocation across all seven metrics examined. Finally, random forest models identified ten fungal and six bacterial families important for plant performance that changed significantly with fragmentation. Our findings not only support the existence of significant fragmentation effects on natural microbiomes, but also demonstrate for the first time that fragmentation-associated changes in microbiomes can have meaningful consequences for native plant performance and investment.

Seed Consumption by Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) in the Globally Imperiled Pine Rockland Ecosystem of Southern Florida, USA

Turtles have been identified as key dispersers of seeds in many ecosystems; however, seed dispersal by turtles (chelonochory) has received far less attention than seed dispersal by birds or mammals. We assessed the role of gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus)—a keystone species—as potential seed dispersers by analyzing the seed composition of their diet in a globally imperiled ecosystem: the pine rockland ecosystem of South Florida. The pine rocklands contain high numbers of both endemic and invasive plant species that may be dispersed by tortoises. We collected scat samples from wild gopher tortoises living in the pine rockland habitats in the Richmond Tract (Miami-Dade County, Florida, USA) and examined the samples to identify seeds consumed. We extracted 2484 seeds from 53 samples from at least 10 individual tortoises. Of the 2484 individual seeds, we distinguished 33 morphospecies and identified 23 to the species taxonomic level. The 14 most abundant seed species in the scat constituted > 90% of all seeds eaten by the tortoises. Three of the 14 most abundant seeds were from nonnative plants, but none were among the most disruptive invasive species. Tortoises consumed mostly herbaceous ground cover and fibrous grasses. Given that the tortoises were consuming several ground cover plants and contained a high density of those seeds in their scats, they seemed to be consuming the seeds as bycatch rather than selectively feeding on them, therefore supporting Janzen's “foliage is the fruit” hypothesis. The prevalence of many seeds and a variety of seed species in the tortoise scat suggests that gopher tortoises may be serving the ecological role of a seed dispersal agent for some of the plants they consume within the pine rocklands.

The role of phylogenetic scale in Darwin's naturalization conundrum in the critically imperilled pine rockland ecosystem

AbstractAimWe expand on community phylogenetic approaches to Darwin's Naturalization Conundrum by considering phylogenetic scale, comprised of phylogenetic grain and extent. We assess relatedness between invasive, non‐native and native plant species at multiple depths in the phylogeny (i.e. phylogenetic grain) and across multiple clades (i.e. phylogenetic extents) at regional and local spatial scales in the highly fragmented, critically imperilled pine rockland ecosystem.LocationMiami‐Dade County, Florida, USA.MethodsWe used two metrics differing in phylogenetic grain to determine whether invasive or non‐native species were more closely related to native species in the regional pool and at 33 habitat fragments. At both spatial scales, we altered phylogenetic extent from all vascular plants to four smaller phylogenetic domains (Monilophyte, Gymnosperm, Monocotyledon and Dicotyledon) and assessed whether the interpretation of relatedness changed.ResultsFor the regional pool and at a broad phylogenetic grain, non‐native species were more closely related to the native community than invasive species were for all phylogenetic extents (i.e. support for Darwin's Naturalization Hypothesis, DNH), and at a fine phylogenetic grain for only two phylogenetic extents. At the local scale, there was limited support for DNH across all phylogenetic extents. In Monocotyledons, support for DNH was more prevalent at the fine phylogenetic grain, while Dicotyledons showed support for DNH at the broad phylogenetic grain.Main conclusionsIn the pine rockland flora, we found either support for DNH or no difference in relatedness between non‐native‐to‐native and invasive‐to‐native species. However, patterns of relatedness varied across spatial and phylogenetic grain and, critically, this variability is highly dependent on the phylogenetic extent considered. By explicitly assessing the interactions between spatial scale and phylogenetic scale, we show that support for DNH was context dependent, and findings at smaller phylogenetic extents rarely agreed with findings at the larger phylogenic extent.

Are Native Palms “Pollinator Hogs”? A Field Experiment in Pine Rocklands of Southern Florida

Plants blooming simultaneously may interfere with each other's pollination (competition for pollinators) or enhance each other's pollination (pollinator sharing). In this study we asked the question: What is the effect of native palm flowering on the pollination of a native wildflower species? Using potted plants of pineland golden trumpet Angadenia berteroi (Apocynaceae), we placed plants with flowers about to open in the field in two positions: within 5 m of flowering palms (Sabal palmetto and Serenoa repens, Arecaceae), and within 5 m of palms that were not flowering. We observed visitors to the flowers of A. berteroi on plants in both situations. We collected the corollas of the one-day flowers to look for pollen deposition on the receptive stigmatic surface. The same flowers were monitored to see if they set fruit. Flowers on plants in both situations were visited, but the ones near flowering palms less frequently. More of the flowers from plants near non-flowering palms had pollen deposited on the stigma, but fruit from flowers presented did not differ between treatments. This experiment demonstrates that flowering palms, with their large floral displays full of pollen and nectar, diminished pollinator visits to one of the most beautiful of the pine rockland wildflowers, resulting in less pollination in A. berteroi. As fire suppression can lead to an understory with overrepresentation of understory palms in pine rocklands, practitioners should manage natural areas to prevent these super-attractive species from hogging floral visitors to the detriment of less numerous native wildflowers.

Too Precious To Lose: Managing and Protecting the Richmond Pine Rockland Tract (Richmond) in Miami Dade County, South Florida

Pine rockland is a globally critically imperiled ecosystem limited to the southern tip of Florida and nearby islands. Miami’s Richmond tract contains the largest American assemblage of pine rockland species. Competing interests challenge management in this fire-dependent ecosystem surrounded by urban development. In 2018, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and Miami-Dade County updated a 1994 management plan, complete with best practices, new developments, current data and learned experiences. An analysis in Richmond indicated non-traditional areas provided habitat for endangered species.