Preserving Florida’s History with Native Plants

Even before the month of October hits us, Halloween-inspired snacks, treats and decorations are in abundance, especially creepy spiders in huge black webs. The discovery of the Punta Gorda Spider Lily (Hymenocallis puntagordensis) is the perfect lily to celebrate Halloween – without the creepy and scary part.

Based on its name, the Punta Gorda Spider Lily is found only in Charlotte County, which includes the city of Punta Gorda. It is commonly referred to as the Punta Gorda Spider Lily and is listed as Critically Imperiled and found only at the Fred C. Babcock/Cecil M. Webb Wildlife Management Area.

According to Daniel Agis, Conservation Associate for the Naples Botanical Garden, the Garden is growing the Punta Gorda Spider Lily seeds, which were collected last summer. They are waiting for it to bloom and to be 100% certain on the taxonomy identification - they want to see the plant in bloom just to have that final confirmation. When they collected the seeds, they did not see the actual plant.

Dan added that there are 14 species of Hymenocallis native to Florida and many of the species have Spider Lily as a common name. The most common is the Hymenocallis latifolia – commonly called Mangrove Spider Lily. Of the 14 species, only two are evergreen – the Punta Gorda Spider Lily and the Mangrove Spider Lily.

Why the interest in these Native Spider Lilies? I’ve noticed a proliferation of spider lilies in my landscape this summer; they appeared last year and while they did not bloom, they added an attractive clumping border with long, dark green leaves growing to about two to three feet tall. This year, they produced beautiful and fragrant white flowers on a long slender stalk and were highly tolerant of last summer’s drought.

Is it possible that I have something similar to the rare Native Punta Gorda Spider Lily? Reaching out to Dan Agis of the Naples Botanical Garden, we both discussed the similarities of the two lilies.

Both share the common name of Spider Lily and share the genus Hymenocallis and are native to Florida. Both have slight fragrance and according to Dan, oftentimes when the flower is white and has fragrance, it is often pollinated at night by the Hawk moth. Both are evergreen, and out of the 14 native species of Spider lilies in Florida, only the Punta Gorda Spider Lily and the Mangrove Spider Lily stay evergreen year-round. Both are propagated through seeds or from offshoot bulbs.

Based on other comparisons, my newfound native lily is most likely a Hymenocallis latifolia, commonly called a Mangrove Spider Lily. The leaves are wider on the Mangrove Spider Lily and the flower formation is also different.

Dan also shared information on the Garden’s seed bank, which has collected over 221,000 seeds representing 61 species native to Florida, the Caribbean or both. According to Dan, if something happens to the natural habitat where native and rare plants are growing, those species are at risk of extinction. There is no insurance policy against the extinction of native plants growing in the wild. Organizations like the Naples Botanical Garden collect and store seeds – similar to keeping the backup copies of native plants that might be lost forever due to habitat destruction.

Unfortunately for the Punta Gorda Spider Lily, the seeds can’t be preserved by long-term freezer storage, so planting the seeds and germinating them in the nursery is the only option.

Planting Florida Native is growing in popularity and locally, you have places where you can view some of them doing well in the landscape. The Calusa Garden Club Butterfly Garden at the Winterberry Calusa Park is a good first stop. It is slowly coming back from the destruction of Hurricane Ian, and according to member Susan LaGrotta, they plan to slowly transition to an all-native garden. Susan LaGrotta also had her landscape transformed into thriving native plantings.

October is Native Plant Month and a visit to the Otter Mound, a Conservation Collier property, is also a good place to check out Florida’s mature native plants.