Elkins, Jessica

Frenchman’s Forest Natural Area in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, is a 172-acre (70-hectare) preserve that includes diverse ecosystems, including scrub flatwoods, pine flatwoods, wet flatwoods, and swamp. Earlier floral inventories of this site listed 477 plant species. For my thesis, I surveyed plants in Frenchman’s Forest and compiled a list of plant species documented in Frenchman’s Forest in 2022-2023 based on photographs posted to the iNaturalist website. I found that most of the plant species I documented, a total of 179 plant species, include 37 native and eight non-native species not previously listed. These eight non-native species are described further in detail on their invasive status and how they made their way into the preserve.