Guzmania bromeliads

Guzmania, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

“There are still remnants of the old wild Florida. There is always something. Anytime. Day or night, cold or warm, in the rain or shining sun you can find bits of the old wild left around, if you can only get away from your fellow man for a spell.”
~ Archie Carr (Professor, herpetologist, ecologist, author, and conservationist)

And one way to rediscover the old wild Florida is to trek through the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve Park, also christened “the Amazon of North America.” Fakahatchee is a forested watershed of cypress and mixed hardwoods. Once logged heavily for its large stands of cypress, the swamp is crisscrossed with raised railroad beds. Constructed in the early and mid-1900s, the rails and ties are long gone, but the raised pathways remain. Some of these pathways are cleared for trails, while others are completely overgrown with vegetation.

On my visit to the Fakahatchee as part of the Plein Air Arts outing March 19th, we walked one of these trails and waded through the slough that paralleled the raised tram road. Leaving the trail is almost magical: the rich brown waters of the slough were cool and inviting, the canopy of newly emerged cypress needles and popash leaves were a light-filled delicate green-gold.

Entering a small clearing of popash and pond apple rimming the water, we came on a fairyland of Guzmania bromeliads growing on every available tree. Guzmania monostachia is an endangered bromeliad native to South Florida, found nowhere else in the United States. I can’t imagine coming across this hidden glade filled with blooms – what a sight that would be!

According to presentation by Daniel Austin at a 1986 Florida Native Plant conference, the word “Fahkahatchee” first appeared on a military map in 1856 created during the Second Seminole War. Various meanings of the names’ origin have been suggested: from the Muskogee words for “muddy creek” or the Miccosukee name for “forked river.”

The Fakahatchee strand is a long linear wetland, about 20 miles long north to south, and 3 to 5 miles wide. Its unique ecosystems contain an abundance of trees: stately royal palms, bald and pond cypress, pond apple, strangler fig, laurel oak, willows, popash, and red maple, just to name a few. Many types of plants flourish here: orchids, ferns, bromeliads, cocoplum, peperomias, and poison ivy, just to name a few more. Fakahatchee is home to many types of birds and mammals, including the Florida black bear and Florida panther, mangrove fox squirrel, and Everglades mink.

For more information about the Fakahatchee, please visit these links;
Florida State Parks
Friends of the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve
Wikipedia

You can also click on the caption of the top image to view it larger on my Flickr photostream.

Tillandsia ~ a universe unseen

Tillandsia ~ a universe unseen, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

This is a quick freehand watercolor study of ball moss, Tillandsia recurvata. It’s growing on an oak branch that broke off in a recent windy thunderstorm. Not a moss at all, this air plant is a member of the bromeliad family. Air plants are epiphytes, growing on other plants or trees and obtaining their food from the water and debris in the air and around them. Contrary to some popular beliefs, they’re not parasites and do not harm the hosts.

The dense clusters of linear grayish-green leaves capture water from rain and dew, and create a habitat for all types of tiny living things. Caught between its wiry strands you can see live oak leaves that will decay and provide nutrients. I’ve often wondered at the small organisms that must make their homes around and on these types of plants, if we could only experience them from a microscopic point of view.

The haiku written by Issa connects me to the wonder I feel about a universe of life in a small space. If we were a tiny ant crawling along that branch and encountered this unexpected forest of life, what we experience? How far and deep would we travel; what would other worlds would we discover?

It is just a ball moss on a broken branch,
and yet…

Bald Cypress

Bald Cypress, originally uploaded by Elizabeth Smith.

I had about a half hour to sketch while waiting at the doctor’s office, and sketched this Bald Cypress tree near the parking lot. It looks like young tree, 25 feet high, with a trunk about 9 to 10 inches in diameter. I used my sepia Micron Pigma pens to sketch on site, and added the watercolor washes later. My little three-color travel palette came into play again – the same Quinacridone Pink, Quinacridone Gold, and Prussian Blue kit I mentioned in a previous post.

In my research, I learned that the delicate drooping panicles are the male flowers, and I wondered if the yellowish-rust coloring was a dusting of pollen. The panicles (branched clusters of flowers) were 4 to 5 inches long, swaying in the breeze from arched branches. Anchored onto the sturdier branches were different types of airplants.

According to my meager knowledge they are Tillandsias: Wild Pine, Ball Moss, and Spanish Moss. These are also known as bromeliads, and are related to the cultivated pineapple. These however, are epiphytes. Epiphytes often grow on other plants or trees, but are not parasitic. They get nutrition from the air, rain, or organic debris that collects in their roots or leaves. Wild Pine sends up red bloom spikes this time of year – a spectacular sight in some trees, especially this cypress, which hasn’t yet replaced its needles.

A deciduous habit has earned this Cypress the “Bald” adjective. Some more ambitious trees nearby have started to sprout new foliage. There is nothing as soft looking and deliciously colored as the bright, fresh green of newly emerged cypress needles.

Bald Cypress normally grows in wet places, but is adaptable to drier conditions, too. A good place to see cypress trees and domes in their natural setting in our area is the Fakahatchee Strand or Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. In fact, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary has some of the largest and oldest stands of ancient cypress in the world, with some trees estimated at 500 years old!

You can click on the image above to view it larger on my Flickr photostream.