Sure! Everyone who’s ever spent time in subtropical Florida has heard the popular wisdom that there are only two seasons: wet and dry. But after you’ve been here for a while, it’s possible to make out some subtle reminders of the pattern in temperate latitudes. They’re just not as noticeable, and they usually come a little bit later.
For example, the leaves do change color. Here’s a Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) with the leaflets starting to turn rusty:
In a month or two, when the cypress trees leaf out again, the leaflets look like this:
Bald Cypress is monoecious, which means that the same plant has both male and female reproductive structures, as you can see in this picture (taken back in June, i.e., the beginning of summer):
And the Red Maple (Acer rubrum) lives up to its name around the end of November, too. Leaves that formerly were green have turned brick red.
Even the ferns seem to get in on the action. For the past month or so, I’ve noticed that the Florida Tree Ferns (Ctenitis sloanei) have been appearing more “airy” than usual. Since I haven’t been paying close attention to the ferns over the past four years, I don’t know whether this is a seasonal change or not, but there are a lot of fiddleheads around these days:
And so, without any further ado, I give you below, a gallery of some of the seasons at Fern Forest, as seen through the foliage. This gallery will be updated as I have time, but since it’s a pain to track a post for updates, I will keep the gallery on the Fern Forest page as well.
Related Images:
