Key West I

Funny thing, there are feral chickens everywhere in Key West.

Preparing for sunset on the wharf:  lots of Margueritas.

Fried Cuban food:  conch fritters.

Key West II

 Gathering to watch the sun set is a ritual in Key West.

The red marker shows this is the southernmost point in the United States.

There is a circus like atmosphere, with vendors, performers, jugglers, and lots of drinks.

Picture to the right:  drinking, talking on a cellphone and watching the sun set all at the same time, as well as checking out the scene on the wharf.

Some Southern Florida Landscaping

 Natural habitat landscaping above, with native plants.  

Across the street from boring conventional property to the right in a Naples suburb.

Miami, a bit more colorful.

 Naples Botanical Garden, edging toward a more native look, although with colorful Bromeliads.

Below, beautiful Live Oak trees in a county park in the Keys.

Naples Botanical Garden

 A more natural setting at Naples Botanic Garden, above, with Royal Palms and Sawgrass.

The palm collection with Cuban Petticoat Palm.

A miniature collection of succulents.

The Dancing Tree (Ceiba erianthos), native to Brazil.
Naples Botanic Garden link here:  http://www.naplesgarden.org/gardens.shtml

Corkscrew Swamp

 Corkscrew Swamp is possibly the premier Audubon sanctuary.  It is east of Ft Myers, Florida and is one of the only remaining refuges for uncut Bald Cypress trees.  Above, young Pond Cypress trees (Taxodium ascendens), a smaller cypress that is found in ponds rather than swamps.  Link here:  http://corkscrew.audubon.org

Snowy Egret (I think).

Barred Owl.

In the background above, the luminous, looming Pond Cypress hammock has not yet leafed out.  The Wet Prairie grassland in the foreground:  "Slightly lower in elevation than the Pine Flatwoods, a combination of nutrient-poor soils , fire, and flooding help keep this grass-dominated prairie from becoming a Pine Flatwood or a cypress swamp."

Sabal Palmetto Palm

 The Sabal Palm (and the similar Saw Palmetto) are the most widely distributed palms in Florida.

Pine Flatwoods

The Pine Flatwoods habitat covers over 50% of Florida natural ecosystem area.
The most common pine is Slash Pine or Pinus elliottii.
Here are links:  http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/extension/florida_forestry_information/forest_resources/pine_flatwoods.html
http://www.sfrc.ufl.edu/4h/Ecosystems/Flatwoods/flatwoods.html
http://pinellas.fnpschapters.org/flatwoods.html

 Here are pines with Sabal Palm/Sabal palmetto.

and native grasses, in this case,  Saw Grass or Cladium jamaicense.

Flatwood environments are heavily dependant on regeneration through fire - the plants are adapted to common wildfires and do not thrive without it.

House Compounds Near Devils Garden

 Residential compounds in the this scrubby community of agricultural workers on the road to Immokalee all have the same look: fence, pickup, and posted No Trespassing. 

 These two trailers were a little different: no fence, pickup and the one below is abandoned among the Live Oak trees.

Sugar Cane Empire

 Sugar cane, growing above, covers vast areas of inland Florida south of Lake Okeechobee and north of the Everglades.  Cane trucks below ferry a constant supply to the large processing factory, second photo below.

 The land and business is owned by the Fanjul family, which operates Domino sugar.  Here is more info:    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanjul_brothers
http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/time/1998/11/16/sweet.deal.html
Below, worker housing.

The landscape is unrelenting across much of the area:  no shade and only sugar cane fields.  Industrial agriculture.

Palm Beach to Boca by bike

 Multiple ranks of clipped hedges seem to be a staple of Palm Beach landscaping.

 Also ornate gates, walls and sculpture, most like the property above or to the left.  The house below was different in having a modernist approach.

 Biking along A1A/Ocean Drive past the clipped hedges of mansions, above.  Back over the Inland Waterway to the mainland, Boca is visible in the scene below in the distance.