Visiting Northern Florida--Forest Walk at Birdsong

 In February, 2014, I was in northern Florida and visited Birdsong Nature Center, just north of Tallahassee at the southern edge of Georgia.

 

the forest

The pine forests of north Florida and south Georgia were once part of a broad belt of forest across the southern U.S. Much of that area belonged to plantations that after the Civil War became hunting reserves for very rich northerners. That preserved them into the middle of the 20th century. Much of the southern pine forest has been lost to development but some remains as private and public reserves. 

Plant Story -- Osage-Orange and the Animals of the Pleistocene

Osage-oranges
 on the ground

Osage-orange, Maclura pomifera, is a tree endemic to (native only in) North American. Its range. when Europeans first encountered it, was small: the area where Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma meet. Its habitat is described as woods, forest edges and streams. Widespread planting of Osage-orange for fences in the 1850s-1870s has greatly expanded its distribution.

I talked about Osage-orange's interesting wood previously (link). But Osage-orange has memorable fruits. See Osage-orange fruit They are bigger than oranges. The outer rind is warty. Inside it is more solid than an orange, with a row of small seeds. (Gray's Manual of Botany calls the fruits "disappointingly dry and hard" inside). Not much of anything eats them. People don’t eat them, some horses like them, deer eat a few and determined squirrels will tear them open and eat the seeds, but still the big fruits pile up at the base of the tree. 

Mostly we don't think about what we see and ask "why?" But why does Osage-orange make a huge fruit? Plants are rooted. To get to new areas, something (wind, water, an animal) has to carry the seeds away. Osage-orange fruits seem horribly inefficient at dispersing the plant. 


The current answer is: the fruits evolved to be eaten by animals that have gone extinct.

Visiting Tierra del Fuego--A Walk on Cape Horn

beach at Cape Horn

In November of 2009 I boarded the Via Australis as part of National Geographic trip to sail the Beagle Channel from Argentine Patagonia to Chilean Patagonia, not around Cape Horn but through the safer (though not especially safe) interior waterways. Before sailing westward, however, we were offered the opportunity to walk on the island at the tip of South America, Cape Horn. (Take Google Maps to the tip of South America link then zoom out).

Visiting Northern Florida--ooh! Magnolias!

magnolia flowers emerging from Spanish moss

At the end of February, I visited Tallahassee Florida. Tallahassee gets frosts and snow every decade or so--including this year, so in many ways it was still very early spring, but some magnolias were in full bloom. I was enchanted. Here are pictures of magnolias in flower in Tallahassee and especially at Maclay Gardens. 

a single magnolia flower

Visiting Tierra del Fuego -- the end of the Pan American Highway

spring wildflower, perhaps
Caltha sagittata
buttercup family, Ranunculaceae

On a sunny day in November, 2008, I visited Tierra del Fuego National Park, near Ushuaia in southernmost Argentina. Although we arrived in Ushuaia to cold snowy conditions, it was spring and in the open areas weeds and spring wildflowers were flowering.

spring flowers, Tierra del Fuego

dandelions, Taraxacum officinale
Tierra del Fuego

Visiting Tierra del Fuego - forests at the end of the Americas

Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

Everyone has different places on their “must see” lists. One of mine was the Southern Hemisphere. I wanted to see strange constellations in the night sky and have the water in the toilet turn clockwise. So one of my first trips in retirement was a National Geographic trip to southernmost Argentina and Chile. 

My husband and I left snow in Colorado and flew to Buenos Aires, Argentina. Buenos Aires was sunny and hot. After two days we flew to  Ushuaia, the southernmost city in Argentina. (We pronounced it oo schy a, which is not too far off.) November is spring in Tierra del Fuego, but when we arrived it was just above freezing and a mix of rain and snow was falling. Shivering, I dug in my hand luggage for every layer I could put on.

Growing a Happy Christmas Cactus -- Lessons from Junior

Christmas cactus flower

I've been growing a plant of Schlumbergera xbuckleyi "Rollinsonii", a Christmas cactus, since 1961. I named it "Junior." Last week I talked of Junior's history (link). Here I am going to describe what I learned from Junior about growing Christmas cacti and getting them to flower.

Christmas cacti like Junior are quite tolerant of not being watered but will rot easily if too moist. They never have much of a root system. In nature they perch on a tree as an epiphyte. You don’t need well-developed roots up on a tree branch. 

They root easily if you bury a joint between the segments in soil. That too probably harks back to life in the trees. If a piece that broke off can root, it helps maintain the plant in a dangerous world. Many other cacti easily root at the joints as well.