Mangrove Buckeye, Monarch & Yaupon Holly

Mangrove Buckeye, Monarch & Yaupon Holly

 

Mangrove Buckeye & Monarch Frolicking in the Yaupon Holly. I love the color and texture of Yaupon Holly, Ilex vomitoria. The surreal grey & white hues always light up the dark organic understory of many of Florida's native ecosystems. Yaupon holly's leaves are special as they contain several beneficial alkaloids, including caffeine and can be roasted to make a pick-me-up beverage. Yaupon tea/coffee is actually becoming more and more popular today and I see the leaves offered in a variety of establishments. Yaupon's berries provide food to so many different birds and it's quasi-thorny stem habit creates preferred safehaven for hummingbirds to nest within. This piece is 2" thick Eastern Red Cedar I etch-burned with torch, adding oil pigment afterwards. The blue seepage stream is resin poured into voids in the roughsawn slab. 12" x 15" x 2"