Here are some South Florida plants to watch for flower and leaf bud burst.
• Live oak (Quercus virginiana). These trees generally flower and produce leaves in late winter, early spring. More than 20 years ago, they flowered as early as the first week of February. This year, they've already developed tassels of male flower and tiny spikes of female flowers. The oaks' new leaves are soft, light green.
• Sweet bay magnolia (Magnolia virginiana) produces new shoots in spring. The fragrant white flowers form at the ends of the shoots. Look for these in the Everglades.
• Coastal plain willow (Salix caroliniana) is another Everglades shrub or small tree that grows around sloughs (Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park is a great place to look these in the eye). Leaves drop in the fall, and flowering shoots, with cylinders of flowers called catkins, appear in December on male and female trees. The flowers are greenish-white; male flowers are tipped with yellow anthers.
• Red maple (Acer rubrum) is a tree that loves wet, swampy soils. Flowers appear along with new leaf buds, usually in December or January. Fruit ripens in late January or February and then leaves become fully expanded.
• Grass pink orchids (Calopogon tuberosus) flowers in early spring in Everglades freshwater prairies. The leaves are long and grass-like, the flowers lavender. They are smallish, opening one at a time on the tall, slender spikes.
• Silver trumpet tree or yellow tabebuia (Tabebuia aurea or T. caraiba) bursts into flower in the spring, with clusters of bell-shaped flowers. Golden tabebuia (T.chrysotricha) produces its flowers earlier, usually late winter.
• Red kapok (Bombax ceiba) flowers in late winter. The enormous specimen in front of Sunset Elementary School in South Miami (5120 SW 72nd St.) is magnificent now. Flowers are waxy and red, about 6 inches across.
• Amaryllis (Hippeastrum cultivars) are African bulbs that grow well in South Florida. Usually associated with the Christmas season, the plants produce big, showy blooms in early spring when planted in the ground. This year, I have several orange flowers open already.
• Jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) from the Philippines is a powerful grower that produces gorgeous clusters of aquamarine flowers in the spring and often again in summer.
