The Florida Wildflower Foundation nurtures the awareness, understanding and enjoyment of Florida native wildflowers through conservation, preservation and education.

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Attracting birds with Florida's native wildflowers

hummingbird_standing cypress

Want more to draw more flitting hummingbirds and vibrant songbirds to your landscape? It's simple. Just add wildflowers to provide nectar, seeds and insects and the birds will come.

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Dr. Walter Taylor receives 2018 Coreopsis Award

Dr. Walter Taylor

Dr. Walter K. Taylor, University of Central Florida professor emeritus of biology, has received the Florida Wildflower Foundation’s T. Elizabeth Pate Coreopsis Award for his lifetime of contributions to La Florida, “land of flowers.”

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Florida Wildflower Foundation

The Florida Wildflower Foundation is the worldwide ambassador of Florida’s native wildflowers.

Chris delivers his pollinator pots to FWF staff.

Chris Waltz earns MVP Volunteer award

Chris Waltz of Palm Bay was named the 2018 MVP Volunteer of the Year by the Florida Wildflower Foundation at its Florida Wildflower Symposium in Orlando on April 28. At Foundation events, you’re likely to find Chris unpacking, setting up, teaching and promoting native plants.
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Sex in the garden — just what’s going on out there?

Gardens are such peaceful places: colorful, tranquil, quiet except for the comforting buzz of a bee or the fluttering wings of a bird. Yet they are a hotbed of (we blush) seduction and sex.

“People often look at plants as being boring and passive, and animals as being interesting and active,” says Dr. Craig Huegel, a speaker at the April 27-28 Florida Wildflower Symposium in Orlando. “But plants make the same choices ecologically that animals do, so it makes perfect sense that reproduction in plants isn’t a completely passive thing.”

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Plant blindness: Have you hugged a wildflower today?

When was the last time you read a bedtime story about Morning glories to your kids? Or bought them a cuddly stuffed plant? If you’re a typical 21st century individual, the answer is “never.” Plant stories and toys aren’t wildly popular because most people today suffer from plant blindness, an inability to notice the myriad plants in our environment.

Dr. Elisabeth Schussler, the Florida Wildflower Symposium keynote speaker, will shed light on this phenomenon, which she discovered during a research project.

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Help feed the bees that feed us

Our bees are in trouble, and they need your help. You can plant and preserve wildflowers for bees by purchasing the State Wildflower license plate!

Each time the State Wildflower plate is purchased or renewed, the Florida Wildflower Foundation receives $15 to support native wildflower planting, education and research projects statewide. We depend on the tag to fund the majority of what we do for native, natural Florida. Make your switch now – purchase the tag.

Helping millions of Monarchs by researching the effects of neonicotinoids on caterpillars.

Providing more than 3,000 wildflower plants annually for community park and school gardens.

Providing hands-on wildflower experiences to more than 1,500 students a year.

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The more you know about wildflowers, the more you’ll appreciate how they enrich our lives.

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Young Floridians are learning about our state’s environment and creatures through classroom activities that introduce them to wildflowers and their places in healthy ecosystems. 

Grow native wildflowers

The Foundation is dedicated to discovering and sharing best practices for establishing native Florida wildflowers across our landscapes.

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What’s in bloom

See how Florida’s fabulous wildflowers change seasonably across the state. You’ll find just what you need to be a wildflower tourist, whether you’re on the road or a virtual explorer.

Photos from the field

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Bloom map
Wildflower trips
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Flower Friday
Mock bishopsweed (Ptilimnium capillaceum). Photo by Stacey Matrazzo

Flower Friday: Mock bishopsweed

Mock bishopsweed (Ptilimnium capillaceum) is a delicate little annual that is too often disregarded as a weed. But despite its small stature, it is both attractive and ecologically beneficial, especially when it occurs in mass. Its many dainty white flowers typically appear in spring and summer in swamps, marshes, coastal swales, ditches and along pond edges. Like most members of the Apiaceae family, mock bishopsweed has a long taproot, which helps the plants survive “hazards” such as drought and being eaten by black swallowtail caterpillars.

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Protect wildflowers

Want more wildflowers in your county? Learn about wildflower conservation programs and how they apply to your community. Be a wildflower champion!

Wildflower Resolutions

Since 2009, resolutions have been helping Florida’s counties and cities protect roadside wildflowers through management practices such as reduced mowing. Has your county adopted its Wildflower Resolution?

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FDOT Wildflower Program

In November 2016, the Florida Department of Transportation updated its Wildflower Management Program Procedure to include managing roadsides for pollinator habitat.

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Highway Wildflowers

The Highways Bettering the Economy and Environment Pollinator Protection Act (BEE Act) was adopted in December 2015 as part of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act). It calls for the conservation and planting of native habitat along highways that benefits wild and honey bees and butterflies.

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