The Public Works Department, with cooperation with the Santa Rosa Master Gardeners, is designating several county road rights-of-way as wildflower protection areas. “Wildflower Area” signs will identify the locations, most of which are marshy and rural. A modified mowing schedule will help promote the spread of wildflowers already present in the area.
Wildflower areas will initially include:
- Munson Highway/CR 191 N
- Garcon Point Road/CR 191 S, south of I-10 to Avalon Blvd/SR 281
- Dickerson City Road off the south end of Garcon Point Rd.
- Quintette Road/CR 184, from Renfroe Rd, west to the Quintette Bridge
- East Bay Boulevard/CR 399, south side from Edgewood Dr. to Church St.
Some locations contain the endangered white-top pitcher plant as well as the threatened redflower pitcher plant, both endemic to Santa Rosa County. Other identified wildflower species include the white-top sedge, hatpins, coreopsis, variable leaf sunflowers, rayless sunflowers, dew thread sundews, drumheads, orange milkwort, yellow bladderwort, Florida lobelia, bristleleaf chaffhead, wand goldenrod, shepherd’s hook, yellow aster, pale meadow beauty, rayless goldenrod, pineland daisy, Glades lobelia, Savannah meadow beauty, and yellow-eyed grass.
“This will be an ongoing program as the wildflower populations are currently not established,” said Public Works Director Stephen Furman. “We are proactively initiating wildflower areas to encourage growth and we hope to see them propagate and spread.”
