 |
|
Photos
View |
|
All Photos |
Add Photos |
Emoticons |
Album View |
Mark Unread
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted By:
Hal Brown
Date Posted:
Jan 14, 2010
Description:
The classic Florida gothic shoreline, highlighted by Spanish moss. Of course it’s not really a moss, it’s an epiphyte (air plant): a miracle plant, pulling nutrients and water from air and rainfall. It especially likes to grow on Bald Cypress trees and Southern Live Oak.
Origin of the moss is cloaked in tragedy. As the tale is told, a young lady from Spain with lovely long hair joined her fiancUe in his dream of establishing a plantation in the New World. As they strolled around their future home, the traditional owners took umbrage at their plan and attacked. Because they were really angry, they scalped the long, raven hair and threw it up in a Live Oak tree.
The spirit of her hair was strong. It remained perched in the tree, high above anyone’s reach. As the years went by, it shriveled and turned gray. It spread from branch to branch and from tree to tree. Soon it covered the land of the traditional owners and they were driven away.
To this very day, if you stand under a mossy tree and try to grab it, you’ll see it jump away and an army of beetles will spring forth to defend it. Or so they say. I’m not going to test the theory, because even if the beetles don’t get you, the bats that live there might.
Date Taken:
Jan 14, 2010
Place Taken:
Lake Pierce, FL
Owner:
Dan Nickens
File Name:
Mossy_Shores.jpg - Photo HTML
Full size - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZR1A0000h">
Medium - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZR1A0000m">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZR1A0000s">
Category:
401, Florida Winter Flying
|
|
|
|
|
Click on photo to view the original size. |
| Viewers
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Read what others had to say:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
