Stephen B. White

Spirits of Nature

Giant Taro (Alocasia macrorrhizos)

Can’t see one of these monsters without thinking about some jungle along the Mekong River crawling with tigers and Viet Cong — ok… I watched Apocalypse Now once to often. These exotic SE Asian leaves can be found in most Florida gardens and can get up to ten feet by six.

Limpkin on the Myakka River

Limpkins were once quite rare around Sarasota, but now, with the proliferation of exotic apple snails, they are quite common. The other day, a few of us were sitting in camp chairs by the edge of the Myakka River, and a limpkin, typically considered quite shy,  landed nearby and took a brief nap. That bird […]

Coreopsis at Big Flats

Every May, I look for the sea of yellow that overwhelms Big Flats in Myakka River State Park — the Coreopsis in bloom! Coreopsis is the state wildflower, and it definitely catches your attention around these parts. Last year and this, the bloom hasn’t been as strong because of hurricane effects, but it’s still quite […]

Ferns at Spanish Point

Ferns appear in many of my works both because I find them beautiful, but also because of the graphic appeal of their leaf pattern. I also love the backstory of ferns… before it was known that ferns spread via spores, it was thought that fern seeds (which do not exist) were invisible, but were the […]

Hedyosmum

The more time I spend looking at each individual leaf, the more I see, and the more I enjoy.

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