April 20, 2003

Florida nature

I've been playing with my toy digital camera. Here is a picture of the current scourge of my sinuses (click for larger). I don't know what these things are called, and they are pretty, but they are killing my nasal passages:

And here is a picture of a view of some swampland out near Osteen:

I had to pull over and park at the beginning of a bridge to get the picture, and cars and trucks and such were whizzing past me at great speed, because no one here drives under 50 miles per hour if they don't have to.

Posted by Andrea Harris at April 20, 2003 06:11 PM
Comments

Beautiful pictures... I like 'em :)

Posted by: Ravenwolf at April 20, 2003 at 11:28 PM

Heh, thanks. I also took my regular film camera, and will develop those shots someday.

Posted by: Andrea Harris at April 20, 2003 at 11:55 PM

Amazing how something so pretty and innocent-looking can be so evil...I didn't think I even had allergies until I moved to Florida.

Posted by: David Jaroslav at April 21, 2003 at 10:14 AM

Heh. The old advice for people with breathing problems was always to move to a dry climate...

Then again, I grew up in the Sacramento Valley, which despite being so close to (and downwind of) the Pacific Ocean has a semi-arid climate -- and when I was tested for allergies I reacted to @#$!! near everything they had.

Guess it's the desert for me.

Posted by: Kevin McGehee at April 21, 2003 at 10:26 AM

It looks like crown vetch to me.

Posted by: Fuz at April 21, 2003 at 06:27 PM

It's hard to identify from the picture. It could be crown vetch ( http://www.scienceu.com/library/articles/flowers/images/medium/crown_vetch.jpg ) or something else in the pea family, but I don't know Florida flora and hesitate to make further guesses.

Posted by: Don at April 21, 2003 at 08:54 PM

Crown vetch was widely used on interstate highway projects as a quick way to establish ground cover. It wouldn't be native to Florida.
Probably displacing native species too.

Posted by: Fuz at April 21, 2003 at 11:25 PM

I think I have found it -- it must be the Catclaw Mimosa, because that is exactly what it looks like (if smaller and lower to the ground). And some of the flowers are white rather than pink. Apparently it can grow to a small tree, and develop thorns. I haven't tried to pick the things, so I didn't notice any thorns. I guess it's a good thing they mow the grass around here every week.

Posted by: Andrea Harris at April 22, 2003 at 12:42 AM