Plants from the area

I am an avid gardener back home and love the variety of plant life and the animals they attract.  The islands always have some unique plants brought in by early settlers.  I have identified some but not all in these photos due to lack of internet connection and limited gigs.

I believe this is a cardboard palm with full fruit.  You know the birds and small
animals love this stuff.

Another weird growth pattern,  This cabbage palm grew between the oak's branches.

Another view of the trees.

Not sure what kind of bush this is but it was full of berries and plentiful
in this one area of the state park.

The undergrowth off the trails is so dense.  You have to imagine the extreme
difficulty early visitors to the island trying to get around the area,

The gumbo limbo tree has bright red bark.  This tree is not dangerous but another
red barked tree, poisonwood, is just as bad as the name sounds.  Always good to
know which is which.

We came across this huge oak stump that had apparently been hit by lightning.
It was hollow to the ground.

This palm was long dead and hollow.  Would make a great drum, I'm sure.

This was a very handy tree.  It was so stark and along that we used it as a guide to get
back to the trail that  lead to our dingy.  The path was completely overgrown so we had
to blaze a new one.

In manatee cove, sadly no manatees seen, the roots from the  mangrove reach to the water.
Mangroves are essential parts of the ecosystem for many reasons.  They supply a safe
place for fingerlings to grow to maturity and they filter impurities from the water.

It was low tide when we went by these mangroves and the oysters clinging
to their roots were exposed.

Another variety of mangroves has roots that spread underground and surface for air.

This is a huge Sea Grape bush that had fallen over.  You would think with so
much of its root ball exposed it would have died but all those shoots are new
growth from the trunk.  Strong will to live, I suppose.

These little flowers were all over some of the paths in the park.  They were in
clusters of about 6-10 and they drooped down like bleeding hearts.  They didn't seem to have
anything but a stem and they came up in the middle of sticker  bushes, open fields and along the
path.  Just a bright bit of color at random.