On The American Road: Trees in Florida

Pines and Cypresses are native to Florida. These can be found everywhere, old or young, tall, by the sea shore, in swamp areas, on sandy hills and in the endless forests. There are as well Oaks, Magnolias, Hickory trees, Mangroves and Palms! Hundreds of species of Palms...

Old towns, estates and plantations present oak and palm trees two and even three hundred years old, amazingly huge, tall and impressive.

About Cypress trees. The species here are different from the one we are familiar with from the Mediterranean area. They grow to an unbelievable height over 100 ft. Here you find it in dry and wet lands and even near salty water. In those cases, the tree grows a whole system of air roots that seems like sculptures, sometimes in a very large circle around the trunk, sometimes popping out of the water near the tree.

When a tree dies in the forest, a whole new circle of life begins. Insects, worms and other creatures start consuming it. Animals dig holes and find shelter in it while feeding on the worms and insects. The dieing tree creates space for new younger and strong trees.

In the state parks we learned that the park rangers use fire to maintain the health of the forests. They light prescribed fires to get rid of the lower vegetation on the floor of the forest, this promote renewable and healthy forest and replace the natural fires that once shaped the landscape of Florida's forests.

Wood industry: Driving along the roads of Florida makes you wonder about the thousands of acres of Pine trees growing everywhere, vertically and parallel to each other. This is the Cellulose fiber industry. You will see Pine trees from young Pine plants, to very tall ones growing up to about 100 ft and more. Then you might see caravans of trucks carrying cut trees. Cellulose fiber is one of the most important industries of Florida.

One Ficus tree forest ... located at the Adison & Ford Winter Estates in Fort Myers.
Adison was interested in Botany and brought plants from all over the aorld to grow on his land in Florida.

I'm not a botanist so I'll not pretend I know a lot about trees, BUT, I found new things about trees here in Florida...

For example, there is a strangling fig tree! It grows from the top of a tree down to earth. It spins around the trunk of a tree, growing and fastening its hold, sucking the vitality of the tree until it dies!