Field Journal

Field Journal

So many species to talk about!

Trees/ plants: Cabbage palms (aka the sable palm, Florida State tree and also South Carolina), Pine flatwood (adapted for fire; pinecones only explode with heat, the prop root, the bark sheds off), live oak (Southern symbol of strength), banyan (Part of the fig family, they take over their host tree where the nickname strangler fig came from, Prop roots allow it to get to the remarkable sizes recorded), bamboo (running vs clumping, Strong enough to break through concrete, used to make scaffolding, Edison used it for light bulb filament), banana plant (Male and female plants, the baby plants are called pups, they aren’t really trees at all they are giant herb, two different kinds of fruit the sweet soft banana / firmer starchy plantains, they are the 4^th largest agricultural product in the world), Spanish moss (part of the pineapple family), Coontie plant (used in A Land Remembered to make flour “Brown /orange cones”), Lichen (Algae and fungi, comes in all different kinds “Blood lichen, Old mans beard”), Bromeliads and air plants (Decipher good air quality), Bald Cypress trees (Deciduous – loose their pine needles, You can take a core sample of the tree to tell how old it is and place the sample back into the tree and it will heal, live in water, Extremely hard woods “Were logged for their hard wood / and ability to not be eaten by bugs”), Alligator flags (sign of deep water, when leave wave is a sign of something big moving under them), Saw Palmettos (rub one way and your okay, rub the other and you’re screwed), Mangroves! There are three kinds Red, Black, and white. (Red red pointy head), (Black Black checkerboard back), (White white hold on tight), Orange tree (Delicious fruit).

Animals: turkeys, turkey buzzards, red shouldered hawk, white ibis, Palliated woodpecker, snowy egret, great blue heron, grackle, Red winged black bird, Mocking bird, Tri-colored heron, Bald eagle, black bear, puma, manatee, alligator, armadillo, raccoons, white tailed deer, marsh bunnies, Black indigo snakes, Rattlesnake, copperhead, coral snakes, Blind snake, water moccasin, skunks, Brown recluse, black widow, banana spider, Housekeeper spider, bottle nosed dolphins and many more.

Word Count: 364