Itchy

The week passed with only a few passing rains. The pond in the middle of the clearing is slowly retreating into the bowl that it fills, leaving a layers of duck weed (the tenacious Lemnaoideae Family of floating plants) to suffocate upon dry ground. They perish and slowly decompose where water once floated them leaving a brownish, yellowish ring around the pond, which you can see if you click on the photo and then magnify it. The green that you see through the weeds are those plants covering the surface. The frogs also continue to inhabit the edges and the surface of the pond. I noted that they seemed to swim beneath the surface as well. This is the first year I have seen them in four years of observation. I took a careful look at the ground in the areas we cleared last winter and spring. We spread a lot of new Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebithifolius) seed around that area by mistake and we will be pulling new sprouts out of there for years, I believe. The pepper sprouts seem to be able to hold on even beneath a tall overstory of dog fennel and sedge. I see them sitting there, waiting for the opportunity. Pushing down roots, building up energy. We will try to find these this fall and pull them. The plants grew fast with the rains a few weeks ago, but now everything is over extended and where it can, plants turn to flower and seed converting the last advantages into next year's crop before the present generation passes on. This stage is an itchy stage from the perspective of a being with skin. Powdery whisps and drying extensions, everything a little sharper and more brittle. It tickles at the nose, teasing a sneeze or into the lungs erupting as a cough or into the side of an ankle where sand spur tines puncture down to the fibula sending shock waves back up the spine. Fall hides in the landscape in subtropical Florida, luring the unaware into dangerous circumstances. The common rag weed flower (Ambrosia artemisiifolia) [in the photo above] can be seen everywhere. This ubiquitous plant has done well in the palm hammock this season. There are towering plants in some places over six feet tall. All of them now sport these compact flower/seed pods. Bright green. In the farthest reaches of our clearing, to the west, I also happened upon this delightful splash of color, a blooming Lantana plant (Lantana camara), [in the photo to the left] which has volunteered from elsewhere in the Hammock. This farthest section has taken on the most variety of pioneers after clearing as any of the sections cleared so far. It is closer to the development across the pond. And it is the most recent fill location in the whole natural area. The earth, though squishy in places, felt mostly firm beneath my feet.

Fall

Of the many things that one needs to get used to having transported from the 42nd parallel to the 28th is the inversion of seasons. Summer means dormancy. Fall means new-growth. This week the dangle pods seemed to have doubled in size. So much so that I could not get my photo panaroma maker to make a decent panorama out of my photos. Instead, I will begin with this image of the eucalyptus tree that centers the plot we have been clearing. Two years ago, the tree was surrounded by Brazilian pepper. Now it stands nearly free amongst a field of dog fennel, bushy bluestem, and sedge. The dangle pod growth heralds the growth that has renewed everywhere. Oaks are sprouting the maroon baby leaves we see two or three times a year and the palms are pushing out new fronds and their soon to be flowering effervescence. When I made my way across the clearing today, I notice dozens of small frogs that have come to populate the small pond that centers the area. The pond itself has been infested with duck weed as long as we have been working here, but it has been mostly dead as a result, since the duck weed prevents decomposition underwater and makes the water anoxic. These frogs seems to have adapted an ability to rest atop the duck weed and use the pond as a wide open surface on which they hunt insects. They all apear to have been born in the past few weeks. While there is lots of new greenery everywhere, the flowers are still waiting even cooler weather. There are a few new bloomers, though. Like these white ones which I have not seen before in the Hammock. It is growing in three places right now. It grew in no places last year. The final shot is the understory of the dangle pod forest.