Does anyone know it? I sure do, I had to walk thru the mess.
- Curious about something you saw while walking in the woods? Spot the coolest bug ever? The prettiest flower and butterfly? Stumble on a rock and found a fossil? Or was it? This is the place to show your discoveries and share in the knowledge of the natural world right outside our doors. Join in the fun everyday at The Daily Bucket.
Early July 2015
Last November there was a sizable tornado that blew thru the Florida Panhandle. Sizable for Florida anyways, NOAA says
it was an EF2 and ran for 22 miles starting at the Calhoun Correctional Institution and ending in Sycamore where I hang out a lot.
This NOAA page on the tornado has maps and photos.
Last Monday I was driving down Sycamore Rd on my way to Torreya State Park to continue a research project surveying the rare Ashe Magnolia, a deciduous tree endemic to the western Panhandle. Loggers are now clearing the acreage where the tornado died, it's last hit was the Live Oaks by a mobile home (amazingly undamaged) and the mature pines next door.
Our task Monday was to survey a ravine that suffered thru the tornado. It looked like this.
This is on 1 side of the ravine, you can see the other side where it was untouched. That tree rising up in the foreground? Here's the rest of it:
A Southern Magnolia - doomed to a lifetime of short stubby suckers sprouting from the trunk.
The trek continues blow the orange windstorm...
Another view up the ravine:
It was tough getting thru this; it'd be tough without the tree falls. Understory trees like Florida Anise, Gallberry and Yaupon Holly grow in thickets with grapevines and briars weaving thru them. It'd be tough even if it wasn't 95º and 95% RH.
In this shot you can see the creek down in the bottom flowing to the left. The creek started about a mile behind us, just off the paved road, seeping out of the ground with other seeps adding to it along the way.
And here is a pan across the ravine where one finger joined the main branch. We were hoping that any Ashe Magnolia with the big 2' bright green leaves would stand out. I figured if it happened in November then these trees had all spring to recover. From what we have seen already, they sprout limbs easily from the trunk when damaged.
Here's one of the smaller Ashei with a fruit, about the only one we saw all day, of course it was the last ravine we surveyed. Seds have not yet formed within the cone.
OK - can't do a bucket without wildflowers. Here's the endemic Liatris gholsonii that I spotted in 2 places. There is only a few areas it grows.
Another Liatris not quite open:
And a Scutellaria, possibly a Helmet Skullcap.
Photos taken with my iPhone 5s - I found a "macro" feature on one of my camera apps. It works! Posted here in Lightbox.
That's it for this bucket. Rain expected in Tallahassee. I got 1/2" yesterday; today it might miss me. See ya in the comments!
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