The Florida state wildflower, coreopsis, in bloom atop the Escambia County green roof. Photo credit: UF IFAS Extension
Most of us don’t think much about our roofs until there is a problem—a storm blows off shingles, causing a leak, necessitating a giant blue tarp to hold off the rain until we can get a contractor to replace the roof. But “a roof over your head” is one of those basic needs, perhaps only slightly less necessary for safety and survival than food and water.
Stormwater engineers and landscape architects have been thinking a lot about rooftops. Along with hard surfaces like roads and parking lots, roof area in a community is one of the biggest contributors of stormwater runoff. Those impervious surfaces don’t absorb any rainwater, contributing both to the volume and pollution potential of runoff from any given storm.
The skyline of downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, as viewed from their City Hall green roof. Photo credit: Carrie Stevenson, UF IFAS Extension
While only applicable in specific situations, green roofs can provide a practical and beautiful solution to this problem. Escambia County has been home to the state’s largest green roof since 2009, housed atop the county’s Central Office Complex (COC). At over 33,000 square feet, it can absorb nearly 20,000 gallons of water during a rain, reducing flooding in a flood-prone area and allowing rain to soak into soil instead of becoming runoff. The COC roof was part of the building’s design from the beginning, but many commercial and government buildings have added green roofs as part of a retrofit. The rule of thumb is that if the building is sturdy enough to support an additional story, it can handle the weight of a green roof—including soil, vegetation, and water storage.
Last month, I visited the green roof atop Kalamazoo, Michigan’s City Hall. The imposing art deco building was constructed in the 1930’s, but the green roof on the building’s perimeter was added in 2011. Green roofs add tremendous environmental benefits but can be cost prohibitive, so many communities find grant funding (like the state of Florida’s Nonpoint Source Management grants) to help cover the expense. The Escambia County and Kalamazoo green roofs were both funded by grants. Besides the runoff reductions, a green roof can provide significant energy savings. Vegetation buffers a building from the incredibly hot summer rooftop temperatures, reducing the use of air conditioning and stabilizing indoor temperatures. This is the case for the Escambia County roof, in which an audit showed a 33% reduction in energy needs when compared to a conventionally designed building.
Green roofs can be built on flat-topped home roofs, and many European countries use them regularly. Plant selection for green roofs varies widely based on climate. Our local roof is mostly planted with beach dune species, while cooler, less humid regions make ample use of succulents like sedums. Low growing grasses and native wildflowers are great choices everywhere, providing color with limited maintenance.
A threadleaf sundew in bloom, with its series of buds trailing down. Photo credit: Carrie Stevenson, UF IFAS Extension
The mucky, sunny spaces here in northwest Florida are inevitably full of beauty and surprises. Due to the sopping wet, acidic, and nutrient poor soil, plants in these areas must make some unusual adaptations. Wetland bogs are home to several interesting and carnivorous species, like pitcher plants and sundews. Most sundew species I come across are the tiny, pinwheel shaped dwarf sundews (Drosera brevifolia), which lie prone to the ground.
At a recent visit to the Roy Hyatt Environmental Center, I noticed a showy purple flower that at first I assumed was a meadow beauty.
Threadleaf sundew leaves glisten in the sunlight adjacent to a crop of purple flowers growing from separate stems. Photo credit: Hugh and Carol Nourse
Lavender, four-petaled meadow beauty flowers are common in wet areas. However, this plant was a bit different. First, it had five petals; but even more unusual was that something akin to a green caterpillar was hanging from every flower bloom. Intrigued, I bent closer and saw that the green segments were not a dangling invertebrate, but a series of fuzzy green flower buds. The bud closest to the purple flower was a deep violet and close to flowering.
Fields of curled fiddlehead leaves of the threadleaf sundew are a whimsical sight in wetland bogs. Photo credit: North Carolina State Extension Service (NCSES)
In all my years of exploring and leading people around pitcher plant prairies, I’ve encountered Tracy’s sundew/threadleaf sundew (Drosera tracyi)—a type of sundew with an upright, sap-covered stem—but never one in bloom.
Up-close view of a Drosera tracyi leaf. Photo credit: NC State Extension
Typically, you’ll only come across the slender, threadlike ( a structure known as “filiform”) fiddlehead leaves. These leaves look more like stems, and are bright green and covered in dewy, sticky, deadly-to-insects droplets. Insects are attracted to the shimmering drops of mucus, triggering a hormone in the plant that causes the leaf and its glands to fold over the prey. Once stuck, the insects suffocate and are digested by enzymes in the leaf glands.
The purple flowers appear in May or June, atop a single leafless stem that appears unattached to the threadleaf sundew leaves. According to the Georgia Biodiversity Portal, this series of flowers will “open one by one, from the bottom of a coiled inflorescence up, with unopened buds at the top. Flowers begin to open about 9:00 am and close about five hours later; some flowers persist for two days.” Threadleaf sundews can self-pollinate but are also attractive to bees.
Bats give birth upside down–and a nursing female bat can eat up to 4,000 insects per night! Photo credit: Carrie Stevenson, UF IFAS Extension
I have a soft spot for bats. I know, I know, they give people the creeps and can show up in unwanted places (like attics and sheds). But collectively, the bats in our communities eat millions of mosquitoes and agricultural pests every night. Without them, we’d be overrun with insects, disease, and damaged crops.
This mother bat and two of her babies are nearly the same size. Female bats nurse and care for their newborns until they can fly on their own. Photo credit: Carrie Stevenson, UF IFAS Extension
As a mom, I also have the utmost respect for bat mothers. When a member of this acrobatic species gives birth, it’s done while hanging upside down by her feet. When the baby is born, mom catches it in her wings and the newborn crawls up to her abdomen. Bat babies are not tiny, either—at birth, they are typically up to a third of an adult bat’s weight. Can you imagine giving birth to a 40-50+ pound baby, while hanging from your feet? Thankfully, most births are single pups, but occasionally multiples are born. Through our local wildlife sanctuary, I once met an exhausted bat mother of triplets. She and her new brood were found together on the ground—mom was unable to carry all three with her as she flew.
Summer is maternity season for female bats, typically giving birth in May or June. Being fellow mammals, bats must stay near their newborns to nurse. It takes about three weeks for juvenile bats to learn to fly. During that time, they either cling to their mother, nursing on the road, or stay behind in a maternity colony as she feeds at night. For that reason, during the period from April 16-August 14, it is illegal to “exclude” or prevent bats from returning to their roost—even if it’s your attic. Blocking a bat’s re-entry during this time frame could result in helpless newborn bats getting trapped in a building.
Hundreds of thousands of bats emerge from the Congress Avenue bridge in downtown Austin, TX on a summer night. Photo credit: Visit Austin
So, if you have seen evidence of bats flying in and out of your attic—or another building that should not house them—you will need to wait until August 15 or later. Excluding bats from a building entails waiting for the bats to fly out at night and putting up some sort of barrier to prevent their return. This can be done using several different methods explained in this video or by using a reputable wildlife professional. The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission has regulatory oversight for bat-related issues, and they will work with homeowners to arrange a positive outcome for both the homeowner and the animals involved.
The bat houses on UF’s campus house are home to approximately a half million bats. Photo credit: Carrie Stevenson, UF IFAS Extension
On just about any spring or summer night at dusk, you can look up and see bats darting around, chasing and catching insects. If you are a total bat nerd like me, there are also several places around the southeast with large bat houses for public viewing. In Gainesville, the University of Florida bat houses are home to over 450,000 bats that leave the houses every night. An even larger colony in Austin, Texas (750,000-1.5 million bats) flies out at sunset every night to forage from their dwelling under a downtown bridge. Both are fascinating experiences, and worth a visit!
If you’re interested in building a bat house for your own backyard, reach out (ctsteven@ufl.edu); I have examples at the office and several sets of plans for building bat houses and installing them correctly. The publication, “Effective Bat Houses for Florida” goes through the best way to figure out where to place a house and includes a set of plans.
Twigs dangle from a branch, held in place by horsehair fungus rhizospheres. Photo credit: Carrie Stevenson, UF IFAS Extension
Imagine walking through the woods, enjoying the fresh air and birdsong, when you notice a twig just dangling midair. On first glance, you might presume it is stuck in a vine or a large spider web. However, this material is thinner than a vine and there are no spiders or webs to be found. On closer inspection, you see the twig is entangled in a dark knot of string, slightly thicker than a human hair. Following the source of the black string leads to a lacy network of the same material, flat against and around the branch from which the twig hangs. Fifteen feet down the trail, you come across the same thing—more twigs hanging from “string” in the trees, dangling from a knot of thin black material. What is going on here?
After some research, my conclusion is that we have come across horsehair fungus (Mirasmius spp). Mushrooms and other fungi have long, thin, rootlike structures called rhizomorphs. Rhizomorphs are composed of large numbers of microscopic hyphae, which are tubular and exchange nutrients and water among other parts of the fungus. The hyphae are typically located underground, but in this instance, they are visible in the open.
The ropy network of rhizospheres is visible on the branch, then turns into thin fibers that can trap plant debris. Sample provided by Suzy Marshall.
Aerial rhizomorphs are an excellent example of an evolutionary strategy known as resource partitioning. By forming a netted trap to intercept falling leaf material on a tree, the fungus gets a jumpstart on the decomposition process, taking nutrients from dying plant material before it falls to the ground. The tree-dwelling fungus is thus not competing directly with fungi on the ground, and both types of fungi can thrive. In human terms, this is loosely analogous to co-workers labeling their own food in a shared refrigerator. Everyone eats, but no one has to compete with another for nutrition.
A bird’s nest in Argentina is composed primarily of strong horsehair fungus fibers. Photo credit: Danny Newman
The common name, “horsehair fungi” applies to many species around the world. They are most common in nutrient-poor subtropical and tropical forests, where any available nutrients in the soil are used up quickly by the lush tree growth. They can be found here along the Gulf Coast, up to the Appalachian Mountains, and as far away as equatorial rainforests. In a Malaysian study, researchers found that the aerial fungi trapped up to 225 pounds of fallen plant material per acre! This network of material also supported a significant population of arthropods, which were crucial parts of the overall ecosystem by providing pollination, herbivory, and serving as detritivores. One study of spruce-fir forests in the northeastern United States showed that birds are known to use the material as a nest lining, as it is lightweight but very sturdy. In this particular research, 85% of the nests (particularly of warblers and thrushes) examined utilized the material.
I have come to expect the unexpected when working in Extension. Photo credit: Libbie Johnson
Working in Extension has given me a lot of interesting opportunities. On the job, I’ve found myself leading kayak trips all over Florida, building a two-story bat house, and wearing a Mr. Peanut costume while talking about agriculture. But I never really imagined being featured on a home improvement reality TV show. Sure, I’ve watched my fair share of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Love it or List it, but those were just entertaining ways to pass the time and maybe get some ideas for my own house.
Then, a few months ago our office was contacted by the producers of a show called Flip My Florida Yard, to inform us they would be in Escambia County to film an episode of the show for the Discover Florida channel. As part of the effort, they’d need a local Extension agent to go on a site visit, help review the landscape design, and talk about Florida friendly landscaping principles on air. Based on my prior experience as a Florida Yards & Neighborhoods agent (and our horticulture agent being swamped with Master Gardener training), I got the reality TV job.
Florida-friendly landscapes use water and fertilizer appropriately, include wildlife-friendly vegetation, and reduce stormwater runoff. Photo credit: Carrie Stevenson, UF IFAS Extension
Part education and part entertainment, the show’s premise is similar to most home remodeling shows. A couple or family wishing to improve their current home shares their hopes with the remodelers, the homeowners are sent away for a day, and upon their return they are surprised with a brand-new look.
The twist with Flip My Florida Yard is that the landscapes in need of improvement are redesigned with Florida-friendly principles in mind. During each episode, Extension agents, IFAS researchers, and landscape designers are interviewed about concepts like using mulch and compost, proper irrigation, or “right plant, right place” choices based on soil type and sunlight availability. Last season, the crew was in Panama City to help a family restore their yard after damage from Hurricane Michael. For our Escambia County program, we will focus on appropriate fertilization, managing stormwater, protecting the waterfront, and providing wildlife habitat.
The “Flip My Florida Yard” program features Florida homeowners getting a Florida-friendly landscape renovation. The show is available online and through several streaming services.
In late December I was interviewed by the show’s producers, and we spent a full day renovating a local backyard. The challenging, steeply sloping backyard was given some really nice amenities, including a rain barrel, a seating area, and wildlife attractants. Our local episode should air in March or April. In the meantime, all the past episodes are available for viewing on the Discover Florida Channel. The channel can be accessed via a free online account, or through several streaming services like Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire. Flip My Florida Yard is a creative partnership between the Department of Environmental Protection/Florida State Parks and the state level UF IFAS Extension Florida Friendly Landscaping Program, so even the commercial breaks cover environmentally friendly messages and scenic views of state parks. Check it out—you might get some helpful ideas or even become the next homeowner featured!
