Brooksville Plant Materials Center

Since 1947, the Brooksville Plant Materials Center has provided new conservation plant releases and technology for the PMC service area including Florida, the Caribbean Area, and coastal areas of Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina. Rainfall varies from 30 inches per year in parts of the service area to more than 200 inches. Soil textures are predominately sandy and well drained, but large areas of clay and poorly drained soils are common. Elevations vary from sea level to a few hundred feet in Florida to more than 4,000 feet in Puerto Rico. Plant communities are varied and complex. The climate ranges from warm and humid in northern Florida to tropical in the Caribbean. Major land uses include row crop production, rangelands, orchards, forest land, recreation and urban land.

Major problem areas include water pollution, cropland erosion, coastal areas (including sand dunes and marshes), and manmade disturbed sites.

The Center has released over 20 improved conservation plants including varieties of beach sunflower, lupine, bitter panicum and eastern gamagrass.

Brooksville Plant Materials Center

14119 Broad St.
Brooksville, FL 34601

Phone: (352) 796-9600
Fax: (352) 799-7305

The documents on this site may require Adobe Acrobat Reader

Native Plants for Coastal Dune Restoration: What, When and How for Florida   (5.6 MB)

• PMC Long Range Plan

• Service Area Long Range Plan

• Florida Plant Materials Resource List  - 2005

• Brooksville PMC Publications

• Brooksville PMC Photo Gallery

• Brooksville PMC Plant Releases - The Brooksville Plant Materials Center collects, selects and releases improved grasses, legumes, and wildflowers for wildlife habitat, coastal restoration, mineland restoration, erosion control, water quality, and other conservation uses. To date, the Center has released over 20 varieties, many of them being used for conservation work today.

• National Plant Materials website

  IMPACT Newsletters - Brooksville PMC News

 Technology

In addition to plant releases, the Brooksville Plant Materials Center develops new applied technologies through on-the-ground demonstration plantings and partnerships with public and private land users and agencies.

Coastal Area Improvements

Over 1,500 miles of the coastal beach and dune area occur in the five Gulf Coast states, Georgia, and Puerto Rico, and there are over 2 million acres of coastal wetland in the same area.  The hurricane seasons of 2004 and 2005 have emphasized to the public the value of coastal dune and wetland areas for protecting population centers located in coastal states of the US and on Puerto Rico.

Wildlife Habitats

Federal programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) encourage or require the use of native grasses, legumes, forbs, and shrubs to improve wildlife habitat.  One of the main goals of the Brooksville PMC is to develop locally adapted native plants for use in wildlife restoration and enhancement programs.

Erosion Control

Lands in Florida and the Caribbean are subject to soil erosion due to a combination of characteristics, type of vegetation cover, intensity of rainfall, winds, topography, and land use management.  Gully erosion associated with cropland and critical areas not only impacts agricultural productivity, but also impacts coastal water quality due to increased turbidity, siltation, and sedimentation.  Although much work in this area has already been accomplished, there is a need to further identify plant materials and determine establishment techniques.

Water Pollution

Preventing these environmental contaminants from entering ground water reserves is particularly challenging due the karst geography of Florida.

Florida Program Contacts

MJ Williams, Plant Materials Specialist, 352-338-9544

Greg Hendricks, State Resource Conservationist, 352-338-9543

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