Description: They have 5-8 white flower petals surrounding many yellow tubulars disk florets. This specific flower has 6 petals and is very short and close to the ground. They are quite small. They are often considered a weed.
Habitat: This species was brought to North America from its native habitats in Central and South America. It can grow from open fields to low woodlands, damp meadows, swamps, and marshes, as well as in roadside ditches and around lakes and ponds.
References:
https://www.flawildflowers.org/flower-friday-bidens-alba/#:~:text=Beggarticks%20blooms%20are%20comprised%20of,hairy%20undersides%20and%20toothed%20margins.
https://web.pdx.edu/~maserj/ESR410/bidens.html#:~:text=Devil%27s%20Beggarticks%20are%20found%20in,Pond%20Lily%20(Nuphar%20luteum).
Size of the fungi varied between the size of a human index finger and less than half of the index finger, approx. 1-6 inches. Color was primarily white there were some shades of red that did appear but not very much. However, there were other trees in the area that had a similar fungi and had more red than white. Shapes were irregular and circular like.
This fungi was mainly found on trees as well as anything that was wood or bark. They grew all over from the bottom to the top of the trees. There were some that appeared flat in appearance while others had some sort of bumps in their appearance. As mentioned there were trees with the similar fungi that had more shade of red than white, there were variations in the shade of red where there were some that were very light and some that were a darker shade of red.
This fungi's habitat was in Tampa Lettuce Lake Park. In the forested part of the habitat where there was more moisture in the area.
Reference: Atlas of Florida Plants
Visual Description: This fern had spores underneath its leaves. It was growing low to the ground and in a bush like formation along with other ferns. For the most part the stems grew horizontally to the ground. The leaves are a mix of dark green and bright green, with the stems between brown and green colors. Each stem was no more than 3 feet long
Defining Characteristics: This organism is a seedless vascular plant. This is shown by the spores underneath the leaves, which indicate that this plant is a fern.
Habitat: Ferns typically grow near water or marsh like areas. This plant was growing next to a pond in Cypress Creek Nature Preserve.
Reference: Maiden Fern Thelypteridaceae. URL: https://www.fnps.org/plant/thelypteris-spp
The worm was found in the ground running towards the soil, after some gardening work. The organism was approximately 7 to 10 cm long and was ver agitated until it came in contact with the soil and excavated its way back to under it.
The worm appeared to be wet-looking and shining, symmetrical, making it difficult to differentiate its head from the rest of its body, and seemed to be very flexible as it does not present a backbone.
Reference: Animal Biology Notes (bates.edu)
Visual Description: The mushroom was approximately 3 inches tall, with 2.5 inches in diameter in the cap. The cap displayed a brown-maroon color that was seemed very washed out not that dark. While the underside was more of a dirty white-brown color. Underneath the cap, there were small black spots that spread all around the stalk.
Characteristics: The observable cap and gills, define as fungi. The major parts of the fungi were very easy to identify, such as the stalk and gills.
Habitat: Organism was found on the ground, on soil, by varying plants and other mushrooms as well. It was found near an apartment complex next to a few trees and bushed. This organism can mostly be found in forests all over Europe, North America, and Asia which is defined by its "red-capped fruiting body". (Reinis Fischer).
Reference: Reinis Fischer. (2021). Forest mushrooms - penny bun & red-capped scaber stalk. Forest Mushrooms - Penny Bun & Red-Capped Scaber Stalk | Reinis Fischer. Retrieved October 20, 2021, from https://www.reinisfischer.com/forest-mushrooms-penny-bun-red-capped-scaber-stalk
Visual Description: Spanning a large side of a tree trunk, it takes on a grayish-green color.
Defining Characteristics: This organism is a lichen. It is the symbiotic relationship between both a fungi and a green algae.
Habitat: This organism was found on this tree and many others in the area of Copeland Park, Tampa.
Reference: Consortium of North American Lichen Herbaria: Lepraria finkii. URL: https://lichenportal.org/cnalh/taxa/index.php?taxon=Lepraria+finkii&formsubmit=Search+Terms
Visual Description: This organism spread about 2 inches in length along this tree and displayed a faded green color. The edges appear to be rounded off in some areas, showing no symmetry. There are also noticeable folds in the organism, following the uneven surface of the tree bark.
Defining Characteristics: A defining characteristic of this organism would be that it is classified as a lichen. A lichen consists of a fungus involved in a symbiotic relationship with an alga. Their crusty appearance is also another indicator of their classification as a lichen, as they are closely attached to the substrate.
Habitat: This organism was found on a tree in Lettuce Park in Tampa, FL. It was in a dry area of the park and there were other trees in the same area that had the same organism growing on the bark. This lichen can be found in most terrestrial environments and many different climates.
Reference: https://eol.org/pages/6145
Visual description: The flower contains five petals and has its pistil sticking out from the center. It is pink in color. The flower is pretty small, about 1 inch from a petal to the opposite petal. It has broad leaves with branching veins. It also appeared that the leaves have a tiny spike or needle-like extensions surrounding the edge of the leaves. It's depicted that the plant is about 1.5 meters tall. The fruits appear to be small, round, and cover in spiny capsules.
Defining characteristics: This plant is classified as an angiosperm as it has flowers and fruits. It is classified as a dicot because it contains petals in multiples of five and has broad and netlike leaves.
Habitat: This flower is found in an open grass field next to a small lake. Its growth habit is in the subshrubs. It can also be found growing in disturbed areas, waste grounds, roadsides, swamps, and subtropical regions.
References:
Invasive Species compendium
https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/55771
United States Department of Agriculture
https://plants.sc.egov.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=URLO
Visual description: a small bird with yellow brown legs, long, narrow beaks. Since it is closer to winter, this Ruddy, Turnstone has its winter colors of a more speckled gray and brown on its back.
Defining characteristics: a key defining feature of this bird is the large, squiggly, black striped across its chest.
Habitat: it is found near the seashore. They are found on the shores of Southern North America in the winter. This individual was found in a flock on New Smyrna Beach, Florida in the early morning in September.
Birds of North America: a guide to filed identification. 128-129pg.
This seedless non-vascular plant was found in a heavily shaded area under large oak trees. The moss was growing on a piece of oak tree bark that had fallen on the oak leaf covered ground. The color of the moss is a vibrant green and the majority of the moss is short gametophytes with slightly taller sporophytes sparsely scatter across. The entire system of moss is no bigger than 5 inches. "This species forms large, conspicuous mats on the dry ground of shady pine flatwoods and oak hammocks," (Essig, 2012).
Essig, Frederick B. “Mosses of Central Florida 1. Leucobryum Albidum.” Mosses of Central Florida 1. Leucobryum Albidum, 6 Sept. 2012, http://botanyprofessor.blogspot.com/2012/09/mosses-of-central-florida-1-leucobryum.html?m=1.
The observation took place at 2:40pm and was located at the Violet Cury Natural Preserve. The lichen on the tree was also located next to other types of lichen. The tree itself was not near or touching any other plants. The lichen on the tree covered the majority of the trunk and the total height was not able to be determined. The lichen was a very light green and was very common on the trees in that area.
The observation took place at 2:47pm and was located at the Violet Cury Nature Preserve. This fern is a vascular seedless plant and was located next to a vast majority of other plants and was in the middle of the woods. Its leaves were not touching anything else, but its base was touching other plants located by it. The fern was about 1 foot tall and around 8 inches in diameter. The leaves were green while the stem was a reddish color which helped identify the fern. The fern leaves got smaller as the plant increased in hight.
Visual Description: The purple berries hung from its arching branches in the shade.
Defining Characteristics: This is a seed plant. The glossy iridescent purple fruit hugs the axils in the fall and winter.
Habitat: The berries were hanging from the branch covered by the shade in Philippe Park, Safety Harbor.
Reference: Plant Database. Callicarpa americana. URL:https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=caam2
This spider is protostome that was found sitting on the web it spun on a small tree near a swampy lake. Although this was a very small spider (hence the difficulty in taking a good quality picture) there are visible characteristics of brown / red color on the body of the spider and the legs of the spider are darker brown. This spider was about 1 cm long.
Reference: https://candidegardening.com/US/insects/7a47a8e0-a1ed-4f05-8f61-513f549d536c
The size of the fungi is approximately about a human index finger which would be around 6 inches. It was read and white in color but the red part was more obvious. This type of fungi was mostly found on the trees also some woods. The tree was covered with this fungi all over its trunk. There were some other kind of trees that the fungi were mostly appeared white on it and the reddish part was less. The habitat of this fungi was in Tampa Lettuce Lake Park in the forested part of it where it was more moist.
Reference: Atlas of Florida Plants
This flower is the half size of index finger in case of its petals. It is red-yellow in color and there are some sort of a fuzz growing on its leaves. The size of the leaves are about 6 inches. The flower was growing from the ground up with each flower growing separately. There are some kind of hairy like substance which are red-brown coming out of the middle part of the flower. The plant habitat was in Saint Petersburg Weedon Island, in a dry flowering area.
Reference: Atlas of Florida Plants
This plant was seen in a forested, moist habitat. It is light green and its size is about two index finger which is approximately 12 inches. It is assumed to be a moss. It was located in Tampa lettuce lake park. It is a seedless non vascular plant. The appearance of this plant is hairy-like. It is growing on a dusty ground.
Reference: https://florida.plantatlas.usf.edu/Results.aspx
Assumed to be a Green backed heron.
Habitat:
Found at Lettuce Lake Park, Tampa Fl. It was perched on a small log in the lake; it was a mossy area.
Visual characteristics:
It appears colorful with a dark red neck. The feathers are alternating between dark blue and green on its wings, and the heron appears to have a light green back to it as well as yellow legs. The heron was Short and stocky as well.
Defining characteristics: It is a deuterostome and it had a long wingspan of 26inches. Its shape is kind of small and hunched but once it’s flying it appears long. Also had a loud squawking noise as it flew away.
Reference: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_heron
This organism can be found across the world, typically on soil, over mosses, on bark in moderately shaded/dry areas. This organism is Lepraria finkii. It is a bright to light (sometimes grey) green color. The size varies depending on how much surface area it takes up. On this particular tree found at Cliff Stephens Park in Clearwater, Florida at about 5:40pm, the lichen covers a great amount of the tree so the size is fairly large. A key characteristic of this lichen is the eroded patches and the bubbly patches.
Resource: https://www.jungledragon.com/specie/19349/fluffy_dust_lichen.html
Visual: The organism was approximately 1 inch in length and width. It had an irregular and circular elongated shape. A red outline encircled the shape of the organism. In the middle, there was a gradient of white and red color. The organism was spread out flat on the tree and had a textured surface.
Defining characteristics: This organism consists of a body called the thallus, an outer fungal layer called the cortex, and an inner layer called the medulla. These are defining characteristics of a lichen. It is commonly known as a Christmas lichen, which is identifiable due to its red and white coloration. It's from the genus Herpothallun and has the scientific name Herpothallon rubrocinctum.
Habitat: This organism was found on a tree's rough surface. It is distributed throughout the coastal plains, Florida, and in the U.S. woodlands and forests.
Reference: Ways of Enlichenment. URL: https://www.waysofenlichenment.net/lichens/Herpothallon%20rubrocinctum
Visual: The organism was approximately 3 feet long. It consisted of long branches and broad leaves. The leaf shape was wider near the middle with a toothed margin. It had an opposite leaf arrangement. The branches consisted of a cluster of round purple fruits.
Defining characteristics: This organism has leaves, stems, and roots. It consists of vascular tissue to help support the plants and uses seeds to reproduce. These are characteristics of a seed plant. The glossy clusters of purple fruits and simple leaf structure indicate that this organism is Callicarpa Americana from the genus Callicarpa. It is commonly known as American Beautyberry.
Habitat: This organism was found growing on a shrub by the sidewalk in Hillsborough River State Park. These are commonly found in Southeast Asia, North America, and South America.
Reference: Southeastern Flora. URL:http://www.southeasternflora.com/view_flora.php?plantid=14
Visual Description:The moss was growing on the side of a palm tree facing the sun. It was a light green color and had fuzzy looking leaves and also star shaped features. It covered most of the tree and was intertwined with leaves from a different plant.
Defining characteristics:Living on the surface of the tree.
Habitat: in sunlight to be able to photosynthesize and on a tree as its substrate.
U.S. Forest Service(URL:https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/beauty/lichens/identification.shtml)
Visual description:The Spanish moss hung down from a tree and was about 4 feet in length. Off a vine like feature were light green needle looking leaves all over. The spanish moss was string like and cover most of the trees branches. The spanish moss was half in the sun and half out of the sun because the branches of the tree covered most of the sunlight from coming through.
Defining Characteristics: rootless and curled around a branch
Habitat:marshes, forests, oak trees
Spanish Moss (URL:https://web.fscj.edu/david.byres/spanmoss/spanmoss.htm)
5 petaled flower with a yellow center. While petals a couple centimeters long. Approximately 3 inches tall.
Found growing from concrete in a sunny parking lot.