Wet and wild: midway between Walt Disney World and the Kennedy Space Center lies a haven for Florida's natural delights

Robert H. Mohlenbrock

As much as I love southern Illinois, my native home, I must admit that I enjoy the relatively tropical vegetation in Florida. When I was teaching at Southern Illinois University, my family and I would pack off to Florida each spring break to enjoy tourist attractions and explore natural areas. Since my retirement I still travel to the state at least once a year to teach a class on wetland-plant identification. One of my favorite wild destinations is the William Beardall Tosohatchee State Reserve, about twenty-five miles east of Orlando.

The property, covering nearly forty-four square miles, was acquired by the state beginning in 1977 under Florida's Environmentally Endangered Lands Program. During the first half of the twentieth century, much of it had been a cattle ranch; local sportsmen had also established a hunting club on the ranch back in 1922 (various kinds of seasonal hunting are still permitted in the reserve). Today's visitors may camp in "primitive" sites and explore a network of hiking, biking, and horse-riding trails, but a lot of vegetation and wildlife can be sampled just by driving the roads.

The reserve is bounded on the east by a nineteen-mile stretch of the Saint Johns River [see map on opposite page]. Two of the river's tributaries flow through the reserve: Tosohatchee Creek, which runs across the northwestern corner, and Jim Creek, which cuts all the way from south to north near the eastern side. Both are surrounded by swampy, heavily shaded woods dominated by cabbage palms and other tall trees, including species that occur as far inland as southern Illinois. The two streams are known as blackwater creeks because tannin, released from the breakdown of leaves in the woods, darkens their waters.

Various kinds of wetland appear throughout the reserve, including marshes, wet ditches that lie along the sandy roads, and isolated ponds. Hammocks--which are slightly elevated patches of land within a wetland--support slash pines and cabbage palms. And savannas, which are areas where scattered trees grow amid mostly lower-growing plants, are home to shrubby oaks that grow in the sandy soil.

Animal life also abounds in the reserve. On our most recent visit, my wife Beverly and I were driving slowly along sandy, unpaved Long Bluff Road when, turning a corner, we saw an animal sauntering down the middle of the road, its back to us. It was only about a hundred feet ahead of us, and we drew even closer, finally stopping about twenty feet away. Only then did we realize we had come upon a bobcat. At first it ambled on, apparently unaware of our presence. Then, perhaps alerted by our whispering, it slowly turned its head. It was definitely surprised to see us! The bobcat immediately turned, raced a few feet to the side of the road, and leaped over two-foot-high vegetation, escaping into the adjacent forest. Farther along we saw a feral hog that was foraging within ten feet of the road--and so many armadillos we quit counting.

On other trips to Tosohatchee we have seen alligators, snakes, squirrels, and turtles. Bird watchers will bc treated to the sight of caracara hawks, Florida sandhill cranes, and numerous other species. Wading birds such as egrets, herons, ibises, and spoonbills, more commonly seen farther east, in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, feed in the marshes of Tosohatchee. The eastern indigo snake, which is on the federal list of threatened species, and the gopher tortoise also live here. We haven't seen a Florida panther, an endangered species that has been reportedly sighted in the reserve, but we are more than content with "our" bobcat.

FOR VISITOR INFORMATION, CONTACT:

William Beardall Tosohatchee State Reserve 3365 Taylor Creek Road Christmas, FL 32709 407-568-5893 www.floridastateparks.org/tosohatchee

RELATED ARTICLE: Habitats.

Hammock Vegetation beneath the slash pines and cabbage palms comprises mostly nonwoody species. The undergrowth is often dense with dwarf palmettos and with such vines as earleaf, saw greenbriers (both very prickly), muscadine, and summer grape, all tough on hikers. Various species of beak sedge, crowngrass, lovegrass, and witchgrass are common. Among the attractive flowers are four-petal Saint-John's-wort, Leaven-worth's tickseed, orange milkwort, shortleaf gayfeather, showy milkwort, sleepy morning, snow squarestem, and whitetop aster.

Epiphytes--plants that grow attached to other plants--live on the cabbage palms. They are not considered parasites because they have chlorophyll and so can manufacture their own food. At least six epiphytes are bromeliads: ball moss, Bartram's airplant, giant airplant, northern needleleaf, southern needleleaf, and Spanish moss. Others are ferns: golden polypody, long strap fern, and shoestring fern lodge themselves in the remnant bases of the old palm leaves. Resurrection fern and the rare hand fern live on the branches of some of the woody plants.

Swampy woods In addition to the cabbage palm, tall trees include American elm, laurel oak, pop ash, sugarberry, sweetgum, water hickory, and water locust. Blue beech, red maple, and swamp dogwood are among the shorter trees. Bald cypress is common in the wettest areas. Common buttonbush is the most abundant shrub, though bastard false indigo and silverling are also present. Savannah panicum, a large, broad-leaved grass, is scattered throughout the woods.

Many wildflowers in the habitat belong to the acanthus family, including branched foldwing, Carolina scalystem, Carolina wild petunia, loose-flower water willow, and swamp twinflower. Acanthuses are not rare in the United States, but usually no more than one or two species occur in any given habitat.

Open wet habitat Roadside ditches, marshy terrain, and small ponds provide habitats for numerous wetland plants. Sedges abound, including a large number of beak sedges, and there are several kinds of yellow-eyed grass, some short and slender, others stout and nearly three feet tall. The pipewort family, whose plants put forth a single flower head on one stem, is well represented by three kinds of pipeworts, at least two kinds of bog-buttons, and one species of hatpins. Numerous species of arrowheads and bladderworts occur.

Savanna By definition, a savanna is a grassy habitat with scattered trees. But the trees that grow here--dwarf live oak and running oak--are shrubby species that often grow no more than a foot tall. Other plants include black-root, two tiny-leaved species of blueberry, blueflower butterwort, early blue violet, fringed yellow stargrass pineweeds, pink sundew, queen's-delight, semaphore thoroughwort, and small butterwort.

Robert H. Mohlenbrook is professor emeritus of plant biology at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

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