Native plants have their place in the environment where they grow and reproduce and provide food and shelter to other organisms. These relationships have developed over millennia and provide for a balance in that ecosystem. The native Wax myrtle (Morella cerifera) is the small tree with the serrated leaves just behind the back of the sign. It is able to fix nitrogen from the air, an adaptation to living in poor nutrient soils. The leaves manufacture an aromatic resin which the plant may use to repel potential insect predators but some caterpillars, like the Puss Moth (known for its extremely painful sting), do use it as a host. The resin shows up as yellow dots when the leaf is magnified, as seen in the picture, and you can often smell it if you crush a leaf in your fingers.
Wax Myrtles usually have separate male and female plants and the berries ripen to a shiny grey color in late winter and spring, just in time for bird migration. The fat and carbohydrates that the berries contain are important energy sources for migrating birds. I have been told that flocks of migrating swallows will decend on wax myrtle bushes and quickly strip the berries from them. Humans have extracted the waxy coating on the berries by boiling and used it to make candles, providing those candles with a bayberry scent. It takes 15 lbs of berries to make 1 lb of wax.
An exotic plant arriving in a foreign environment may have come from a similar environment and thrive but will not provide the function that a native does. Native fauna may not recognize it as a source of pollen or food right away thus limiting reproduction and dispersal of the exotic. The exotic may face competition and have few defenses to predation and disease therefore the exotic's place in the ecology may be limited. Like many exotics, the Skyrocket Plant (Clerodendrum indicum) was brought to Florida from Asia as an ornamental and has escaped into the wild. You can see one on the other side of the trail. The long cream colored flowers bloom in October and November and are followed by spectacular dark berries surrounded by bright red sepals that persist through the winter. It has overcome many obstacles to become naturalized but its not obvious how it will fit in. At least it has not been presently identified as a harmful invasive like the Brazilian Pepper Tree, that we will meet later on.
