Turkey Tangle Frogfruit
Note: The name of this cache has absolutely nothing to do with the cache, it is merely an educational tool that you may use in finding wildflowers in the CREW.
Small yellow, white, and pink flowers make the Turkey Tangle Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) one of the common species in Florida also seen in gardens as a decorative plant.
Type of weed, Turkey Tangle Frogfruit is also a weed, so it carries a quick spread risk.
Florida lawns are among the most invaded spaces by the species, together with different types of disturbed soils.
Growing as ground cover, Turkey Tangle Frogfruit can overgrow gardens if left unmanaged. Hand pulling is sufficient for controlling its weed-specific spread.
As we stroll through the CREW on the Marsh Trail, take some time and look at what the Earth and nature has to offer us. Have fun, look around and enjoy the day. CREW (Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed) is a 60,000 acre watershed. A watershed is an area of land that absorbs rain and ground water and then drains it into a wetland. The CREW marsh is a 5000 acre wetland which holds onto the water it receives allowing the water to slowly sink into the ground. The marsh protects downstream areas from flooding during the rainy season and stores water for use during a drought. The plants in the marsh, dominated by sawgrass, filter the water, removing pesticides and other substances harmful to humans. After it is cleaned, the water through the force of gravity sinks into the ground through the spaces in the soil and bedrock ( rock that underlies the soil) recharging the underground aquifer. An aquifer is a permeable layer of bedrock that stores and conducts the water. The bedrock in the CREW marsh is composed of limestone which makes a good aquifer. This aquifer is the main source of drinking water for this part of Florida. Most of the 55 inches of annual rainfall the marsh receives comes in the summer and fall.