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!
Wildflower Hikes
You’ll find great wildflower walks in Florida no matter what the season, with spring and fall top blooming periods
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.
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.
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.
Prairies
Florida’s prairies come in two flavors: dry and wet. Prairies are treeless, open grasslands, many of which are seasonally inundated with water.
Forests
Forests come in many different forms in Florida, ranging from broad and open to densely packed with vegetation.
Wetlands
Florida has numerous wetland habitats – forests, prairies, and swamps – that get flooded or seasonally inundated during the summer months or rainier years.
Scrub
Florida’s desert, the scrub, forms on well-drained, loose “sugar sand” deposited along ancient shorelines, hosting Florida’s oldest plant communities.
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.
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
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
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: A North Florida Gem
A natural landform between Gainesville and Micanopy, Paynes Prairie is an immense and ever-changing basin
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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