Saturday, January 15, 2011

Flora

Not your typical Indiana flora. In fact I've seen neither a cornstalk nor a soybean bush anywhere. The things I do see are strange. I don't even recognize many of them. Palm trees, palmettos and live oaks I know. A few of the plants resemble some of the house plants which we have, but whose names are unspellable if not unpronounceable.




Some of the most fascinating ones appear to be parasites. Spanish moss I know, and it is a parasite.
These beautiful little creatures (some actually get quite large) seem to attach themselves to the bark of certain trees where they thrive on the air and presumably, the tree itself.


The seagrape I know from a visit to Florida ten years ago. At that time, my friend David, may he rest in peace, explained to me that its leaves had been used in olden days as writing paper. He later demonstrated his point by writing a letter to me on one of the large flat leaves. Worked like a charm.

Florida is indeed a world of wonders to a northerner such as I. Not the least wondrous among them: 75 degree days in January.

6 comments:

Lin said...

You are killing me, pally. Do you know how cold it is here???! No, me neither--I quit looking back in November. I just know it isn't warm like Florida!

Enjoy!

vanilla said...

Oh, Lin, I'm not doing this to "kill" anyone; just hoped that the pallies would like to know where we are. And yes, I see the weather reports.

Anonymous said...

That first pic looks like plain ole mint. And 75 degrees does it for me!

vanilla said...

Grace, the leaves do resemble mint, except that they are 4 - 6 inches in length! Yes, 75 is about right!

Sharkbytes (TM) said...

I got to hike a few miles on the Florida Trail once. I didn't know hardly any of the plants!

vanilla said...

Joan, I feel less incompetent knowing that someone of your great knowledge of natural lore had difficulty in this alien environment!