Florida Native Holiday Decor

Happy Holidays! The weather has been appropriately chilly here in Central Florida for the last week or so, with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s. The butterflies are pretty inactive right now with most spending a large part of the day in torpor, except for a few hours in the afternoon when the sun warms things up enough for them to fly around a bit and feed. In the meantime, we've been decking the halls of MOSI Outside with boughs of native holly, along with a few other Florida favorites!

Our big metal frog, a favorite photo op for many BioWorks visitors, got a little holiday pizzazz from some native Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris) and Dahoon Holly (Ilex cassine). We've also decorated the posts around the pond inside with smaller sprigs of this combination of pine and holly.

Another wonderful Florida native, Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria), provided the red and green for this traditional yuletide wreath, hanging in the Flight Encounter and flanked by more pine and holly swags.

We found couple of small trees at the local craft store and tucked more sprigs of Dahoon and Yaupon holly into them for a festive feel.

Inside the BioWorks classroom, we have a large vase of Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) leaves accented with holly sprigs.

And of course, our Florida Native Butterfly and Moth Christmas Tree is back again this year, decorated with "ornaments" made from the photos found in one of our favorite books, Florida's Fabulous Butterflies.

Stop by the BioWorks Butterfly Garden and Flight Encounter exhibit before the end of the year to check out our native decorations and see our butterflies. Have a wonderful holiday season!