The Giant Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio cresphontes) is the largest butterfly occurring in the United States, with a wingspan that can reach 6″. The larvae are sometimes called ‘Orange Dogs’ due to their host plants being members of the Citrus (Rutaceae) family. They also feed on noncommercial members of this family, including a Florida native, Wild Lime…
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Richard Lyons’ Nursery has a large selection of Florida Native Plants for the landscape. Here are just a few to choose from:
Despite its name, the ming fern is a flowering plant and not a fern at all. It produces white flowers in the spring to early summer. It is in the same genus as the edible cultivated perennial vegetable, Asparagus officinalis. Ming Ferns do well in full sun as well as shaded locations. A native to…
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If you are only passingly familiar with cycads, you’re missing out on one of the most ancient and interesting representatives of the plant kingdom. The first cycads arose somewhere around 280 million years ago, but came into their own in the Jurassic Period, the same time dinosaurs began to dominate, roughly 200 to 145 million years ago. But you can’t say that’s when cycads really flowered, because they’re…
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The Fukien Tea Plant is named for the Fukien or Fujien Province of S. China where it is native. Its botanical name which most people are familiar with is Carmona microphylla. However, recently it has been renamed Ehretia buxifolia. It is a member of the Boraginaceae family, or Borage Family. In the Philippines, the leaves…
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