About Nemastylis floridana Small
Nemastylis floridana is a species of flowering plant in the Iridaceae family, with common names Florida celestial, fallflowering pleatleaf, and fallflowering ixia. It is endemic to Florida in the United States, and while it faces many threats to its survival, it remains viable to date. This is the only member of the genus Nemastylis found in Florida. This plant is a perennial herb that grows a thin stem up to 1.5 meters long from a bulb that can reach up to 1.5 centimeters wide. The stem typically has a few branches and a small number of linear-shaped leaves, each no wider than 1 centimeter. The basal leaves are the longest, reaching up to 4 or 5 decimeters long, while leaves near the ends of stem branches are much smaller in size. The inflorescence is a rhipidium that usually holds two flowers. Each flower has six dark blue tepals, each up to 2 centimeters long. The fruit is a capsule that may reach nearly 1 centimeter in length. Flowering occurs in summer and early fall. Individual flowers open in the afternoon, between 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm, most commonly between 4:00 pm and 6:00 pm. The flowers are pollinated by bees, especially female individuals from two halictid bee species. This plant grows in wet, swampy habitat types. It can be found along marshes, in hammocks, and in flatwoods growing among saw palmettos and cabbage palms. As a local endemic, it has been recorded from thirteen counties in eastern Florida, and it is currently considered extirpated from Broward County. Its main distribution is within the St. Johns River drainage. There are multiple known occurrences of the species; one count confirms 23 separate occurrences. Some occurrences are quite large, and the plant is abundant in a few areas of well-maintained habitat. However, threats to its survival are considered serious, with degradation and destruction of Florida's wildlands as the main issue. Related threats include draining and clearing of habitat for residential, commercial, and agricultural development, roadside maintenance, and fire suppression in remaining patches of wildfire-adapted ecosystems. Fire suppression is a problem because the species appears to depend on periodic fire events to clear the landscape, and large blooms of N. floridana can still be observed in the growing seasons following a fire.
