Verdant

The changes over a week are far more subtle than over several. This week has been especially rainy, so the plants have in fact taken on quite a bit more size, especially the dangle-pod. They are fast growing annuals and have outpaced the dog fennel. [You can click on the photo for a closer look.] On the west side of the pond the swamp flatsedge (Cyperus ligularis) that were killed in the January frost are recovering, slowly. It will take some time for them to repopulate, if there is even space for them. The bushy bluestem (Andropogon glomeratus), which has made a regular home in the meadow, is growing to monumental proportions after the rains, with grass leaves towering six and half feet into the air before the first suggestions of the tufts that will come begin to show. Mostly, it is green everywhere. If you lean in close, however, you can see the dangle-pods beginning to flower. This pale yellow blossoms will metamorphose into a long dry dangling bean pod by October. The red flower is called a tasselflower (Emilia fosbergii) and it grows at the edges of the Palm Hammock, far from the re-growing restoration site. But they are so striking against the general green of everything else, I could not refrain from taking their picture. The ground was mushy everywhere from the rains.

Yellowish

The whole pond region has transformed since my last visit in mid-July. Two weeks of fairly regular rains and no human visitors and the dangle-pod (Sesbania herbacea) has colonized in among the dog-fennel (Eupatorium capillifolium) and a new growth of grasses and sedge seem to be filling in the empty spaces. The far west region of the clearing has the same appearance as the other parts we have cleared -- sprouting dog fennel and dangle weed, yellow-nut sedge (Cyperus esculentus), purslane and pusley crawling along the ground building succulent leaves -- but when you kneel down and look closer to the ground you can see the mistakes we made last winter. In a regrettable act of hubris, no efforts were made to contain the red Brasilian pepper seeds, and the cold weather seems to have incubated them well. Brazilian pepper sprouts (Schinus terebinthifolius) are everywhere. Our first task this fall will be to remove them.

Overall, the area has taken on the quiet beauty of late summer Florida. Beach sunflowers have covered a pile of sticks, opening their smiley yellow faces to the hot summer sun. Similarly, dozens upon dozens of this golden yellow aster (Pityopsis gaminifolia) are blooming across the Palm Hammock Nature Area, lending subtle highlights to the landscape's sun-baked green appearance. Fall, our growing season, will be upon us soon.