FWF Receives VISIT FLORIDA Grant to Produce Panhandle Wildflower Brochure

The Florida Wildflower Foundation has received funding from Visit Florida to publish a brochure that will guide residents and visitors to the best of the Panhandle’s native wildflowers. The region is widely regarded as one of the state’s best places to view wildflowers.

The publication will include a map highlighting wildflower viewing routes, state parks, national forests and refuges, visitor centers, scenic highways and other places of interest in Liberty, Gadsden, Wakulla, Franklin and Leon counties. To help visitors identify native species, its reverse side will have labeled photos of common North Florida wildflowers. Also included will be a short history of La Florida, “land of flowers,” as this land was named by Juan Ponce de Leon when he sighted it on Easter Sunday in 1513.

Florida has the nation’s third-largest diversity of native wildflowers – a fact that is getting attention from ecotourists around the world. “Visitors are increasingly asking where they can view our wildflowers,” said Lisa Roberts, the Foundation’s executive director. “This beautiful publication is sure to entice more interest in exploring the Panhandle’s natural side.”

Look for the brochure next spring at state Welcome Centers and the region’s visitor centers, parks and chambers of commerce.

Visit Florida – the state’s official tourism marketing corporation – promotes tourism to Florida through sales, advertising, promotions, public relations, new product development and visitor services programs.

The Florida Wildflower Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to enriching lives with Florida native wildflowers through research, planting and education projects. For more information about Florida’s wildflowers, visit its Web site, www.flawildflowers.org.

from Lisa Roberts, Florida Wildflower Foundation, Maitland, FL