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swamp mallow

Florida Wildflowers

Florida’s wildflowers give a compelling reason to get outdoors. Use these resources to identify what you see.

Florida Wildflowers      ( Species Identification )      

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One thing we never tire of along Florida’s trails: the constant parade of wildflowers we enjoy year-round.

Different habitats see peak blooms at different times of year, meaning you have opportunities everywhere to see something in bloom. Flamboyant tropical flowers, delicate orchids, masses of pitcher plants, hillsides covered in trillium – we’ve got it all!

Lake Jesup Wilderness

Wildflower Hikes

You’ll find great wildflower walks in Florida no matter what the season, with spring and fall top blooming periods

Swamp sunflowers

Florida Hikes for Botanical Beauty

Enjoy Florida’s botanical bounty with this handpicked selection of walks in the woods to see spectacular wildflowers, big trees, and unique habitats throughout the state of Florida.

Marshall Swamp

Botanically rich hikes along the Florida Trail

With more than 1,400 miles of hiking statewide, the Florida Trail provides a gateway to grand landscapes for botanical beauty. Here are our top suggestions for fascinating botanical destinations along the Florida Trail.

Our Florida Wildflower Profiles


Florida Wildflower Habitats

These are some of the most productive habitats for viewing wildflowers. Spring is a great time for pine savannas, wetlands and prairies. In summer, tropical, coastal, and mangrove habitats. Fall is a delight in the drier habitats, including sandhills and scrub.

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve

Prairies

Florida’s prairies come in two flavors: dry and wet. Prairies are treeless, open grasslands, many of which are seasonally inundated with water.

Oak and palm hammock at Starvation Slough

Forests

Forests come in many different forms in Florida, ranging from broad and open to densely packed with vegetation.

Floodplain forest along the Suwannee River at Log Landing

Wetlands

Florida has numerous wetland habitats – forests, prairies, and swamps – that get flooded or seasonally inundated during the summer months or rainier years.

Scrub ridge at Lyonia Preserve, Deltona

Scrub

Florida’s desert, the scrub, forms on well-drained, loose “sugar sand” deposited along ancient shorelines, hosting Florida’s oldest plant communities.

Pitcher Plant Bogs Tropical Forests Mangrove Forests


Best Destinations for Wildflower Viewing

Some of the places where we’ve simply said “wow” to the wildflowers we’ve seen. We’re sure you will, too.

ghost orchid

The Ghost Orchid

On a guided swamp walk into the Fakahatchee Strand, I discover how difficult it is to spot a ghost orchid on your own, let alone keep your bearings in this tangled tropical wilderness

Enormous strap fern

Stranding Steves at Fakahatchee

Exploring Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park for a chapter of a new book we’re writing, a pair of park rangers named Steve guide us to the park’s beauty spots

John photographs a liguus tree snail in Everglades National Park

Adding to the Life List

Although John is a native Floridian, our research trip to South Florida became an opportunity for him to see many natural “firsts” in Florida that most people have on their life lists.

Paynes Prairie blooms

Paynes Prairie: A North Florida Gem

A natural landform between Gainesville and Micanopy, Paynes Prairie is an immense and ever-changing basin

Trumpet-leaf pitcher plants

Summer in the Savannas

Summer is prime time for delicate orchids and carnivorous plants among the bogs of the Apalachicola National Forest, especially along the Apalachee Savannas Scenic Byway.

Lake Jesup Wilderness

Sunflower Season on the St. Johns River near Orlando

In September, swamp sunflowers put on a colorful show along the St. Johns River between Sanford and Geneva, north of Orlando. Here’s where to take a hike to find them.

Hammock Sink at Leon Sinks

Walk in the woods at Leon Sinks

South of Tallahassee in the Apalachicola National Forest is one of Florida’s most beautiful and intriguing trail systems showcasing the weird and wonderful world of karst topography

Creek Sink Trail at San Felasco Hammock

At San Felasco Hammock

At San Felasco Hammock Preserve State Park, two hiking trail systems offer two different perspectives on karst landscapes and dense deciduous forests.

Pine lily

Explore Pine Lily Preserve

Orange County’s Pine Lily Preserve in Bithlo is a great wildflower walk in any season, since carnivorous plants are common in its bogs.

And a very unique experience in the field with a notable botanist who is now no longer with us.

Angus Gholson in his herbarium

A Walk with Angus Gholson

While researching Exploring Florida’s Botanical Wonders, I had the honor of a visit to Angus Gholson’s herbarium in Chattahoochee, as well as a guided hike through the new Gholson Nature Park, a wonderland of rare wildflowers.

All Wildflower Destinations


Wildflower Identification Tools

Having the right resource to look up your wildflower finds is crucial. These are some of the field guides that we use to identify flowers after we take photographs of them along our trails.

As authors and affiliates, we earn a little something anytime you buy a book from our website. And we appreciate it, as it helps us take time to provide information to you

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: Florida wildflowers
 

Our Florida Wildflower Profiles Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants Florida Wildflower Foundation

Category: Articles, How To, Species identification

Reader Interactions

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