TORREZ TRAVELS

We never made it to the ocean today. After a relaxing morning at home (Sterling and I were relaxing, Jim had chores to do), we drove to a really cool park where we walked around. The first area we went to had jungle like trees and plants growing.

Jungle like is not the right word to describe them. The tree is a live oak, but on all its branches more plants were growing. Plants that grow on other plants, but get their nutrients from air, rain, and decaying organic matter are called epiphytes. Spanish moss may be the most well known, but today we saw ferns, bromeliads, and several types of mosses.

Here’s a bromeliad that was probably nocked to the ground by the wind.

This is a Ficus tree. These trees drop string thin roots down from their branches. They grow into the ground, and get a lot thicker, as you see. Banyan trees are a type of Ficus. I’m not sure if this is a Banyan, though. In all the ones I’ve seen, the roots have grown together and look like a funky tree trunk.

We walked over to a pond with lots of tropical plants.

There were flowers.

And Turtles!

This guy is a Florida softshell turtle.

We found a very climbable tree.

We also saw an Anhinga. They are dark colored birds about the size of a heron. They spear fish with their bills by diving into the water. They like to stand with their wings spread afterwards to dry them out.

He’s hard to see, almost looks like a dragon! Yet another great day!

The weather cools down right before it rains, and right after. As long as you don’t mind getting wet, it’s not too bad!