Well, anyway, I should say that I'm not really describing Florida's trees, just Miami's. Doubtless they're rather different in the north, and of course will be very different in the Everglades. So, suitably qualified, onwards...
Two things are immediately striking about Miami's trees. First, the ubiquity of palm trees and similar tropical species. You know dragon trees, those spindly little things kept as houseplants in the UK? There's one in my back garden with a trunk as thick as my, err, trunk. Second, there's a lot of them. The city being so sprawling, there's plenty of space for trees, so that if you're in a tall building, the place looks incredibly verdant.
Looking beyond the palms, a lot of the species are pretty similar to UK ones, although they're probably tropic-adapted subspecies. I've spotted oaks, beeches, and elms, for example. It'll be interesting to see how these deciduous ones behave in the autumn and winter. I suppose it's quite possible that these are imports - that the majority of the trees, like the majority of the population, aren't indigenous. This is certainly the case with the first of the two that have caught my eye most.
This is the royal poinciana (Delonix regia). There's a few of these on campus. Native to Madagascar, they're fairly low, with wide-spreading canopy. The attractive thing about them is the combination of their leaves, which are very like ferns, and their big clusters of small flowers, red or yellow usually.
The second one I particularly like is the banyan, or strangler fig. This really refers to a few similar fig species, two of which are native to South Florida. They germinate in cracks in the trunk of a host tree or some structure, and send roots groundwards. These roots are long red strands. When they touch the ground, the roots, err, root, and harden into trunks. Sometimes they're wrapped round the trunk of the host, sometimes they're free-standing. Eventually, the host tree/building is killed off, and the banyan is left alone, a network of trunks. These can grow really, really enormous...
As for surgery, the approved method with palms seems to be similar to how you look after yuccas or dragon trees; wait for the leaves to die, then strip them off. Either that, or just leave them alone and let them fall. There's huge dead palm leaves all over the place. With other trees, the Americans have apparently taken all the danger, fun and skill out of tree surgery by replacing climbing with sitting in a cherry-picker, like you use to change streetlight bulbs.
Well, that's trees. Maybe I'll do wildlife next, alligators have been spotted in the campus lake...
3 comments:
Excellent bit on trees there mate, I particularly liked the bit on Banyan trees, almost like the cuckoo of the tree world...
Any chance you could post up a couple of cityscapes? - the only images I have of Miami are the ones in your last post, Miami Vice and that Michael Caine film "The Birdcage" Stick a couple on there to show us what it really looks like yeah?
Re. the decks thing, I'd go for a cheapo belt drive (like $20 or summat) so you can at least listen to your new choons whilst ur buying them, then eventually you'll get so pissed off with only having one shitty deck that you'll go out and get a proper set - probably not worht getting one proper deck as you'll get a better discount if you buy em both at once.
Then, once that's done sell or give the cheapo deck to somebody who you will have converted to the virtues of vinyl, thus increasing the amount of vinyl collecting people in the world - evetually they'll do the same too, and thus it continues. Till the cheap deck breaks. About a week after you bought it.
Anyway gonna go cos this comment is probably longer than some of your entries.
Take care,
Greg.
Very entertaining. Except for the philosophers' joke which, unless you explain, the humour contained therein will probably be lost when you die.
The Delonix does indeed look very pleasing to the eye, and a good climbing tree also. I am completely unfamiliar with this and would enjoy assessing its virtues personally. (Not a carnal reference).
Think the banyam was the tree that buddah gained enlightenment under. Not in Miami, though.
Did you take the snaps? Very good if so. Greg's advice seems sound re: the decks.
Chin up,
Tom.
I nicked the photos off the internet - I don't have a camera. Another thing on the list of stuff to buy. So no cityscapes for now, sorry. Try watching CSI Miami, it's surprisingly accurate, apart from the weird light filter they seem to use.
Decks are on the list, but nothing is getting bought till I get paid....
Tom, you're right about Buddha apparently. Perhaps I should use that tactic for thinking about essays.
I'm not explaining the philosophy joke, it wasn't funny in the first place. If you don't get it, you don't want to.
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