Florida Nature Poetry & Art, La Mar & a Cup of Tea

Monday Nature Verse - La Mar & Cup of Tea

Florida Nature Haiku-Senryu by Kevin Songer

...
rumbling storm vibrates
oceanfront window panes
and my cup of tea
…

Florida Nature Poetry & Art, Monarch Butterfly’s migratory flight across the gulf

 Florida nature poetry for Wednesday, Monarch Butterfly’s migratory flight across the gulf.

Monarch butterfly feeds in preparation for it's winter migratory flight across the

...
one last nectar sip
as kaleidoscope gathers
over the shoreline
nature's refinement
eight hundred miles cross the gulf
waves swallow many
the strongest survive
maybe luckiest rest in
oyamel fir trees
…
#monarch #butterfly #arttherapy #pensacolaart #pensacola #biglagoonstatepark #floridastateparks #naturepoetry #haiku #poetry #floridanature #nature

Florida Wildflower Art & Haiku (Senryu), Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra

Florida Wildflower Art & Haiku (Senryu), Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra

Florida Wildflower Haiku, Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra by Kevin Songer

… 

limestone rock croppings
bees butterflies skipper art
rose gentian drawn
…

Tarkiln Bayou State Park, Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra by Kevin Songer

Rose gentian has about a dozen different species found throughout Florida (Sabatia spp.). 

Tarkiln Bayou State Park, Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra by Kevin Songer

Rose gentian’s flowers are rich in purple and pink hues. When in full summer bloom, Sabatia can fill a roadside drainage swale with incredible swaths of pink and purple. 

Tarkiln Bayou State Park, Marsh Rose Gentian, Sabatia dodecandra by Kevin Songer

Some accounts may exist where early settlers dried Sabatia root and then brewed a chicory-like coffee with the plant parts. This may be a historical carry over from traditions in Europe where the same was practiced with great yellow gentian, Gentiana lutea.

Florida haiku - senryu for first fall Saturday morning; Seaside goldenrod and Mangrove buckeye.

Florida haiku - senryu for first fall Saturday morning; Seaside goldenrod and Mangrove buckeye.

Florida Nature Poetry, Seaside Goldenrod, Mangrove Buckeye by Kevin Songer

...
harvest goldenrod
mangrove buckeye both bargain,
anticipate first frost
...

Florida Native Plant Art & Poetry (Green Roof Plant too!), Shiny Blueberry, Vaccinium myrsinites

Florida Nature Haiku for Friday morning, Shiny blueberry, Vaccinium myrsinites

Florida Haiku, Shiny blueberry, Vaccinium myrsinites by Kevin Songer

...

I always wondered
bout shiny blueberry’s taste,
rabbit got there first

...

Shiny blueberry is a diminutive member of the blueberry family offering winter seasonal beauty with its namesake bright and shiny red and green leaves. During the growing season shiny blueberry is usually obscured by taller growing plants. Shiny blueberry produces large amounts of fruits sought after by small mammals, birds and other foragers. I see shiny blueberry growing along most trails hiked.

Shiny blueberry makes a good evergreen & salt tolerant green roof & landscape plant too!

Florida Nature Art & Poetry, Annona glabra, Pond Apple

Florida nature poetry and art; Pond apple, Annona glabra.

…
alligator grunts
gobbling down a couple
meh tasting green fruits
…
Pond apple trees, like pop ash and black gum grow up out of the deep and dark swamp depths, producing apple-like fruits eaten by alligators and other wildlife. I would describe pond apple fruit’s taste as more ‘blah-bland’ than tasty, but some do make jellies and jams from the fruit. Pond apple provides habitat for wildlife, birds, orchids and bromeliads. Fort Myers' Six Mile Cypress boardwalk is a great place to experience pond apple up close.

Florida Nature Poetry, Senryu, Haiku, Paths of Lover's Key

Florida nature haiku - short verse for Tuesday, another verse about 'paths'.

Florida Nature Poetry, Haiku, Senryu, Lover's Key by Kevin Songer

...
today's trail was full
of ancient stardust turned to
sand, leaves and me
...
Lover's Key, Fort Myers, Florida

Florida Nature Haiku, Senryu, Perdido Key

Florida nature senryu for Tuesday, Perdido Key Beach and Life Paths,

Perdido Key, Kevin Songer

...
sometimes backward path
is our path forward, yet wind
and waves erase both
...

Saturday Morning Florida Nature Haiku, 'Hummer Across the Dunes'

Wildflower Haiku for Florida Saturday morn.  'Hummer Across Beach Dunes'.

Florida Wildflower and Wildlife Haiku by Kevin Songer
Gaillardia, Helianthus, Coral Bean & wayward Green Violetear on the dunes

...

peaceful sand dunes

bees buzz, gulls cry, waves crash and 

hummer’s roar startles

...

Florida Wildflower Haiku, Butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa

Florida wildflower haiku for Thursday; Butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa

Florida wildflower haiku, Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa by Kevin Songer

…
milkweeds toxin sap
eaten by Monarch larvae
hungry birds disdain
…

Butterfly weed (also known as 'milkweed') provides nectar for many pollinators, including butterflies and hummingbirds. Butterfly weed likes to grow in sandy soils and is a larval host plant for the Queen and Monarch butterflies. Interestingly, milkweed contains sap substances that are sometimes toxic to birds. Some butterflies have taken advantage of this toxicity by laying eggs on milkweed in order for the hungry larvae to ingest leaves full of these toxins, which fill their body with a taste predator birds disdain ultimately providing the larvae and young butterflies with much needed protection.

Florida Nature Poetry, Sea Oats

Florida native plant short verse for Wednesday. Sea oats, Uniola paniculata

Florida Nature Haiku, Sea Oats, Kevin Songer

…

mice, birds and bunnies
tasty seeds eat, summer grub
when no chips are around
…

Sea oats are a protected grass found growing along the Gulf and Atlantic seashores, primarily across the sand dunes. Sea oats provide important forage for beach mice and shorebirds as well as shelter. Their roots help stabilize dunes, preventing erosion. As a child I always possessed a strong desire to grab a handful of seeds off the plant and I’m not sure if this was because I was always told not to pick them or because it looked like a fun thing to do. Sea oats are some of the only native plants to grow in the harsh salt laden environment, close to water's edge and as such provide important communal and foraging habitat to wildlife.

Life Betterment Through Beauty, Wildflowers, Garden Foods, Green Roofs and Rambling Sunday Morning Words

Watching wildflowers grow in the garden and on Green Roofs can be pure bliss, not only to my senses but to wildlife, pollinators and local environmental health.

Rosemary in our coastal front yard garden, mandala by Kevin Songer

Some life forms are evolving in ways I call, 'Betterment Through Beauty'.

Many times we are told survival of the fittest involves the concept of 'eat or be eaten'; trample on your competition, subdue your enemies, just be a general, overall jerk.

What I've learned from nature and years of botany work is another maxim.  Wildflowers teach bootstrap through beauty and quid pro quo.

Organic produce from Judy's garden

One of the ways I manage aortic dissection is through foods Judy grows in our yard.  The basil and okra are among the many blooming and fruiting plants out front, each packed full of healthy phytochemicals. So yesterday I admired their lovely blooms (both have lovely flowers), shooing away the bees and pollinators as I harvested a basket of okra pods and broad, bright green basil leaves.

Chopping okra for tuna burgers

In the kitchen the organic yummy was washed, chopped and mixed with walnuts, tuna, stone ground mustard, farmer's market eggs and a couple jalapeños then pressed into tuna burgers for grilling.  Chopped lemon added a bit of tasty zest to the tuna burger mix.

Zest for tuna burgers

We tend to the plants for the bounty they provide.  Flowers attract pollinators through beauty of senses and once fertilized make seeds.  This is survival through the good for the whole.  Same way with green roofs and living walls; we tend the plants and they provide cooling, cleaning, purification, habitat and beauty functions.

Slow organic cooking, tuna burgers ready to be made into patties

Wildflowers have refined beneficial quid pro quo techniques to an amazing art.  Their essence, aura, color, hues, tastes and nutritive qualities seduce other life forms into a symbiotic union.

Plant Quid Pro Quo, tuna burgers on the grill

In other words, it really is easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar.

Wouldn't the world be an awesome place if, like most wildflowers, humans had evolved into life beings who practiced 'quid pulchrun pro quo'.

Nothing earth shattering, just a wildflower observation for Sunday morning.

'Betterment Through Beauty', I like it.

Florida Wildflower Short Verse, Turkey Tangled Frog Fruit, Phyla nodiflora

...

fruit frog eyelash high

turkey leg vines wrap, purple

green earth trip trap

...

Florida Nature Art, Ghost Orchids, Dendrophylax lindenii and the Cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus

Mandala for Saturday is Ghost Orchids and the Cottonmouth.

Mandala Ghost Orchids and the Cottonmouth by Kevin Shea

Dedicated to the Fakahatchee Strand park in the Everglades.

Gíclee on aluminum plate with hanging racks on back, signed limited edition by Kevin.

The ghost orchid is many times found on pop ash trees, as illustrated in the mandala.  Pop ash, Fraxinus caroliniana is a small tree typically found growing in many parts of South Florida's everglades.

Along with the pop ash, the mandala celebrates a variety of lichens, including Christmas lichen, Cryptothecia rubrocincta.

Celebrating nature and biodiversity through wild art!

Florida Nature Art, Horseshoe Crab, Limulus polyphemus, Tricolor Heron, Egretta tricolor and the Sanibel Estuary

Mandala Horseshoe Crab Estuary

Red mangroves, seagrapes, the tricolor heron and horseshoe crabs celebrate life each day in the Sanibel estuaries on the lee side of the island.

Salty breezes, snapping shrimp popping in the near distance, wading birds calling and flying overhead as the sun sets - these are nature's wonderful attributes found back up in the mysterious red mangrove bayside inlets of Sanibel Island.

Mandala Horseshoe Crab celebrates life.  Each plant and creature alike glorify our infinite cosmos, the wonder of life.

15" Gíclee on aluminum plate with hanger, signed and numbered limited edition print.  Inquire kssonger@gmail.com.

Florida Nature Art, Mandala Elderberry, Sambucus nigra and Purple Hairstreak Butterfly, Altides halesus

Elderberry is a magnificent native wildflower and fruit bearing plant, cherished by humans and wildlife alike.

Elderberry and Purple Hairstreak Mandala by Kevin Shea

Flower and Berry Detail

Great purple hairstreak butterfly can often be seen foraging across elderberry flowers in parts of Florida and across the nation.

I like to think elderberry makes a great urban landscape planting.  She is drought tolerant, grows quickly, provides good screen coverage with her foliage and attracts birds and pollinators.

Elderberry fruit makes delicious jam, jelly and of course is renown for our ancestor's elderberry wine.

The purples and greens in this mandala take me to those hot summer Florida afternoons where the mockingbirds are calling and sweet, cold ice tea is in my cup.

I love this Florida nature mandala.

15" diameter gíclee on aluminum plate with hangers, numbered and signed limited edition print.  For inquiries contact the artist kssonger@gmail.com

Nature's Living Wall, Another Native Example

I am always amazed with how Nature can design simple but beautiful living walls.  Yesterday I was walking in the Suwannee River State Park and happened upon violets growing out of a cypress root.

Viola sp., Nature created living wall, vertical green

Nature takes the simplistic approach sometimes and creates stunning beauty with amazing complexity.  The old cypress tree's root crevice was no more than a few inches deep and a few inches wide, filled with nothing but sharp, washed river sand; yet the violets were growing in such a happy manner.

Bird droppings had provided a small amount of organic matter such as nitrogen and the like.

The crevice was exposed to moderate sunlight yet was shaded enough to keep the violets from becoming too dried out or desiccated.

Though usually considered an annual plant, native violets may do very well in vertical green applications, especially where shade is involved, even surpassing many other living wall plants in durability under some situations.

I always learn so much from nature.  And importantly, most times nature teaches us about crucial design issues on an incremental basis.  Learning what plant grows best how in what media from looking around as you experience everyday life is   one of the best methods of understanding living wall and green roof design.  One does not have to walk beneath the great constructed living walls of the world to learn about successful vertical green design (though it helps).  Nature too, can teach us incrementally through her selection and use of plants we see appearing in the cracks of walls, on the tops of buildings, across bridges and even growing out of hot asphalt pavements.

You see, nature has first created all plants; from simple crevice growing violets to those in the beautiful man-assembled living walls.

Learning from the original teacher is the best way to learn.