9-29-2019 ORCA Walk

Our first fall walk at ORCA was on the morning of 9-29-2019 with Susan Warmer, Pat Cramer, Dotty Workman, Dotty Noble, Lori Greene, Terry Greene, Pat Bowman, George Cooper, and Dorene McLeod participating.  We hiked to the Observation Tower and encountered some not quite ankle high water near the eastern wetland crossover bridge that connects to the mosquito control dike.

We had encountered much more extensive and deeper flooding when we walked on 9-15-2017 following Hurricane Irma shown below …

Cigar-shaped red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) propagules were abundant on the mosquito control dike but not nearly as prolific as the carpet of propagules that covered the dikes after the storm surge of Hurricane Irma …

We also saw black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) propagules that resembled large lima beans …

… and, when they root and sprout, they “unfold” like the beans that many of us germinated in grade-school biology classes …

Mangroves bear live young that are called propagules.  Unlike seeds, they are ready to go and do not experience a period of dormancy.  Mangrove propagules float, as do about 1% of the world’s seeds.  Mangrove propagules or seeds that float are referred to as sea beans or drift seeds