A developing resource for learning about habitats and native plants in South Florida is the website of the Institute for Regional Conservation, www.regionalconservation.org. On it, you will find a link to plants appropriate for your yard: Natives for Your Neighborhood. It is a trial version of what the researchers hope to have fully operational by fall.

Simply plug in your zip code and up pops a list of the kinds of habitats and the native plants that historically grew in your area.

The institute is composed of half a dozen botanists and researchers who have worked in South Florida for many years. George Gann and Keith Bradley were early partners in the institute, which was founded in 1984. They spent 10 years putting together an inventory of South Florida plants, much is which is available online. I plugged in my zip and found that five types of habitats had historically existed in my area: pine rockland, rockland hammock, rockland hammock edge, tidal marsh and tidal swamp. From those habitats, you can click to instructions on how to restore such a native area.

Each of these habitats is described. For example, a pine rockland is dominated by slash pine growing on exposed limestone. It contains palms and mixed grasses and herbs.

Specific plants include South Florida slash pine, cabbage palm, pineland croton and pineland snowberry, poinsettia and Florida gama grass.

The site's goal is to motivate people to plant enough native areas so there is a network of urban plantings, like stepping stones through the city.

With enough native gardens, wind can carry pollen and birds can carry seeds, Gann said, "Then germplasm can move from fragment to fragment in the urban landscape."

By creating native landscape or even small hammocks within a landscape in the urban/suburban areas of South Florida "we're increasing the connectivity of fragments," he said, "and preserving our native plant heritage.

"Our position is that any fragment is worth preserving," he said. "If you look at the data, there are lots and lots of rare plants in small fragments."

-- GEORGIA TASKER

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