REDISCOVERY OF THE ENDANGERED OKEEC...

REDISCOVERY OF THE ENDANGERED OKEECHOBEE GOURD (Cucurbita okeechobeensis) ALONG THE ST JOHN RIVER, FLORIDA, WHERE LAST REPORTED by way of WILLIAM BARTRAM IN 1774-The Okeechobee Gourd, Cucurbita okeechobeensis (Small) L H Bailey, is a robust, frequently overwintering, herbaceous vine endemic to Florida. granting originally observed by William Bartram in 1774 along the St John River, in the eastern peninsula, it has since been known barely from the marshy shores of Lake Okeechobee, south-central peninsular Florida. It has now been rediscovered in small numbers, still extant along the St John where last seen at Bartram twoand-a-quarter centuries previously.

The chances of William Bartram, as recorded in his famous Travels (1791) are well known, republished in an annotated edition through Harper (1958). However Bartram's manner of movings in Florida, perhaps for simplicity of presentation, were many times rearranged or combined and were almost entirely left undated. If his observations of plant and animal seasonal phenomena are to be understood and made credible, the chronology of his travels must be rebuilded Fortunately Bartram's patron, Dr. John Fothergill of London, suited a written report. That document, granting sparse in detail, together with known dates of ship sailings, verbal expressions written by Bartram to his father and others, and the occasional dates provided by way of the Travels, has permitted regaining of an approximate chronology (Harper 1943 Ewan 1968)

On 20 March 1773 Bartram left his Philadelphia household for a venture into Georgia and Florida "in Search of and to discover Tree bushs Plants etc-that May be singular useful, or Curious" (as described in the alphabetic character of recommendation provided him through Governor James Wright of Georgia, cited according to Harper 1943). After exploration in the Carolinas and Georgia and delays caused by way of a bout of fever and relate tos over hostilities by the rivulets (the present Seminoles), by April 1774 Bartram reached the St John River, Florida. From a trading support near the present city of Palatka he casted westward to the great Alachua Savannah (now Paynes Prairie State Park).

By mid May 1774 Bartram was again in succession the St. Johns, near the instant town of Astor, where he secur a small boat. He coursed up river to a "very amazeing large spring," the at hand Blue Springs, about four km southerly of Lake Beresford, and recured His exploration of the upper St John River is estimated as extending from the latter part of May to the first scarcely any days of June 1774 (Harper 1943)

Bartram then traveled westward, again visiting the Alachua Savannah and continuing to the lower Suwannee River, before returning to the St John by dint of August 1774 he was one time more heading up river, revisiting many of the locations seen the previous May. As before, he turn rounded back after reaching Blue Springs. In his Travels (1791) there is no hint that his report of the St John River exploration, nor his visit to the Alachua Savannah, were each the composite of sum of two units separate trips.

The upper St John River generally appears today plenteous as it did to William Bartram in 1774 Commercial-grade timber is gone and a small in number non-native species have appeared, if it were not that for long distances no direct human influences are visible. The river is lined with subdued bluffs alternating with wetlands, the latter either lightly thicketed swamps or open marshes frequently locally dominated by a single plant species. At the river opening [i]or[/i] close the dominant woody vegetation consists of small tree of burst ash (Fraxinus caroliniana Mill.), together with r maple (Acer rubrum L) occasional bald cypres (Taxodium distichum (L) Rich.), water hickory (Carya aquatica (Michx. f) Nutt) and water locust (Gleditsia aquatics Marsh.). Maximum tree height and nothing else rarely exceeds 10 m.

Shrub of buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentalis L) and elderberry (Sambucus canadensis L) are of common occurrence beneath the overstory and form close thickets wherever an opening come abouts At intervals along the river's cutting side the woody climbing aster (Aster carolinianus Walt.) forms vigorous masses, while the moonflower (Ipomoea alba L) and the climbing hempvine (Mikania scandens (L) Willd.), although less dense, are more widely distributed over the thicket. Marshy areas are locally dominated according to the common reed (Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin. ex Steud) The introduced wild taro (Colocasia esculenta (L) Schott) is well established unless nowhere common. The grass, maidencane (Panicum hemitomon Schult) is abundant the one and the other in shallow water and forward adjacent wet soil.

Two herbaceous plants form close single-species stands paralleling the channel just behind the predominately covered with woods riverbank vegetation. Giant reed (Arundo donax L) an introduction from Europe is locally abundant, forming almost impenetrable stands. Alligator flag (Thalia geniculata L) which is existing as small plants scattered from beginning to end is much more vigorous in occasional openings, its large banana-like leaves arching overhead and its inflorescences reaching to twice head-height.