Do You Know Ghost Orchids? - Part 1 – Nature 14

One of ghost orchids (credit to The news-Press)

I just read from medias and make me curious about “ghost orchid” (Dendrophylax lindenii).

It is because:

1. Ghost orchid is a rare species, found only in Cuba and Florida
2. Two thousand orchids only live in the Florida
3. Several percentages, about two hundred orchids blooming in summer.
4. Orchids have no leaves
5. Roots cling to the bark of trees.

Uniquely, ghost orchid blooming once a year only from June to August in nature. The blooming could last for several weeks.

As suggested by Russell McLendon (2019: 12 Enchanting Quirks of the Rare Ghost Orchid) that other specific characters of ghost orchid:

- orchid may germinate after infection by certain fungus
- smell likes apples

Another ghost orchid (credit to Florida Native Orchid)

What species of trees which ghost orchids to attach to?

Four important tree species are:

- maple
- cypress
- pond apple
- palm tree

How about with ghost orchid population in nature?

Are they decreasing in number?

# To be continued to Part 2

## Previous postings:

- White Azaleas in the City Garden – Nature 5
- The Amphibians Near Extinct due to Fungus Disease – Science 5
- What is Coronasomnia? - Healthy Life 2

Recreational Fishing in the Louisiana – Part 2 – Nature 13

Fig 01- Fishing recreation boats in lake Pontchartrain basin.

Please read the part 1: TheRecreational Fishing in the Louisiana – Part 1 – Nature 13

When I travel from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, I pass through the bridge over Lake Pontchartrain Basin.

I saw many fishing boats both belong to real fishermen and fake fishermen (just for fun).

Fake fishermen refer to recreational and game fishing, include some of my neighbors and friends.

Lake is quite big in size, about 24 mile width, and 40 mile length. It is the largest lake in the Louisiana.

Its contains many aquatic animals, and important to ecosystem. They are including many species of:

- Fish and Crustaceans
- Mussels and Reptiles

Fig 02- Dark cloud in the city

Fish species includes:

- Anchoa mitchilli
- Bull shark
- Gulf Sturgeon
- Paddle fishermen
- Flagfin
- Broadstripe

Fig 03- Turtle, for illustration only.

Some crustaceans:

- Ribbon Crawfish
- Plain Brown Craw fish

Mussels live in the lake are:

- Rayed Creekshell
- Elephant-Ear
- Southern Pocketbook
- Southern Hickorynut

We may see reptiles too:

- Alligator
- Snapping Turtle

Off course, we never fishing alligators. We collect crustaceans and mussel with specific gears.

Have you ever fishing by a machine boat in the coastal areas or lakes? 

Recreational Fishing in the Louisiana – Part 1 – Nature 13

Ready for fishing

May be, I just once went fishing in the last 15 years, but never using boats to catch fish in the ocean.

I just sit on the bridge or sea port, waiting for fish to bite my baits of fishing gear (fishing line).

Some of my neighbors and friends have a boat, just very small boat for recreational fishing.

A boat at above belong to my neighbor, they are ready for fishing at one of coastal areas of Louisiana.

They might go a bit far, hundred miles from home to find the best coastal fishing places.

Some well known coastal fishing areas include:

- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Mississippi coastal places
- Florida beach areas

Fish sold in the Walmart, illustration purpose.

Louisiana has several lakes as well that good for recreational fishing, namely:

- Lake Pontchartrain Basin
- Calcasieu Lake
- Lake D’Arbonne
- Toledo Bend Reservoir
- Red River

# To be continued to Part 2

## Previous posting:

- Wild Animals and Birds in my Backyard – Nature 8a
- When do Pine Trees of our Neighborhood Produce Nuts? - Nature 9
- The Rainbow Before Evening : Birds Fly Over Our Backyard – Nature 10

Will Wild Horses Able to Ride Out Hurricane? - Part 2 – Nature 12

Herds of wild horses

This posting is part 2, the first part was:

- Will Wild Horses Able to Ride Out Hurricane? - Part 1 – Nature 12

Feeding the horses is illegal conduct, it is because wild horses can’t consume human diets such as:

- fruit
- vegetable
- and off course burgers.

These diets have bad effect, and lead to:

- serious health issues
- or even may cause to death to horses.

What stunning me that horses are not evacuated during Dorian hurricane currently. Will Wild Horses Able to Ride Out Hurricane in North Carolina?

Yes, the horses able to ride out the storms.

This skill is inherited from their ancestors since 500 years ago.

Decorative horse head, illustration only

The horses skillful to sense the bad weather such as hurricanes and heavy rains, then they respond by:

- grouping together
- going to higher ground
- finding sturdy trees for protection

Hope, the hurricane is over soon, and everything goes well and safe.

# Previous postings:

- Hot Summer in the USA – Temperature above 40 Celsius degree – Nature 6
- Alligator in the Nearby Neighborhood - Nature 7
- Flash Flood at my Neighborhood - Nature 8

Will Wild Horses Able to Ride Out Hurricane? - Part 1 – Nature 12

 

Wild horses on beach, North Carolina

I knew the wild horses are living in the forest or jungle close by mountains. It was surprising me, herds of wild horses wandered on the beach.

They are feeding on wild grass that growing lightly on the sand or sand dunes. Grass looks green and fresh.

The horses, colonial Spanish Mustang have lived on the Outer Banks beach, North Carolina for around 500 years.

Tourists have come to beach not only to observe the horses, but also other purposes:

- warm summer
- beautiful sandy beach
- awesome waves
- spacy place (miles of beach)
- clear ocean waters during summer and fall

What visitors are prohibited to do with wild horses?

An antique brass horse, just for illustration.

In respect to wild horses, visitors are prohibited to:

- pet the horses
- try to ride the horses
- approach the horses at 50 feet distance.

# To be continued to part 2

## Previous posts:

- Wild Flowers in the Backyards – Nature 1
- Snow Storm in Our City Baton Rouge – Nature 2
- Snowy Owl Re-Appearing after Hiding for 130 years – Nature 3
- How Many Animals Are Expected to Extinct by 2050? - Nature 4
- White Azaleas in the City Garden – Nature 5

Hurricane Ida Hit Our Neighborhood – Nature 11

Fig 01- Tree down in our neighborhood

Hurricane Ida with speed of 230 km per hour, called as a category 4 hurricane. Then its traveled to US mainland and our city, Baton Rouge, LA with category 1 storm.

It was mean the wind slow down from 230 km per hour to 155 km per hour. I think this is a strong wind, enough to damage some public and private entities.

Moreover, the causalities of hurricane Ida in our state are following (just few important facts):

+ 10 death (Axios, 2021 reported 13 death in Louisiana)
+ more than 1 million houses and businesses have no electricity
+ more than 14,000 people are displaced
+ flash flood with rain 2 to 3 inches (51 to 76 mm)
+ hit oil industries, caused shortage in gasoline supply. We have no gas for several days.
+ Estimated economic lost between US$ 70 to US$ 80 billion.
+ Ports in the gulf of Mexico are closed.

Fig 02- Branches and leaves scattered everywhere

Fig 03- A big tree hit a house and electric wires

Fig 04- Cutting and cleaning works

Fig 05- Trucks and line men to fix the electric wires

In our neighborhood and city, we saw that hurricane Ida took down:

- electric lines
- trees, especially old and tall trees.

Some house’s roof are damaged and part of city was flooded. We can’t drive in several flooded roads.

We experienced for about 5 days after hurricane Ida:

- power outages
- no internet connection
- no cell phone network (for two days).

Finally, we have a lot of branches and leaves in our yard, and we start to clean our house and yard now.

Birds Fly Over Our Backyard – Nature 10

A crow flies away

My kitchen faces backyard, so when I am cooking or just sitting, I could see many wild animals, many are birds, but some are mammals:

- variety of birds
- raccoon
- squirrels
- cats (may be belong to neighbors, but I consider wild, since I don’t know who is the owner).

Birds that always visited my backyard during spring and summer seasons are:

- cardinals
- humming birds
- wood peckers
- Mocking birds
- Crows
- blue birds

A juvenile heron in neighborhood

One day I heard the sound of crow. The sound was “rattle” on my ear, then like “click and bell.”

I approached close and closely to photo taken, but it flies suddenly. Pictures are not good enough.

Actually, crows are abundance birds in my city, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It seems that they able to adapt to the city environment.

We may find crows every where. Birds are reasonable medium size. Wing size when it open wide is around 32 to 40 inches (81 cm to 102 cm).

What do you think about crow?

# Have a great summer

When do Pine Trees of our Neighborhood Produce Nuts? - Nature 9

Fig 01- Nuts of pine trees

We routine go shopping to our neighborhood Walmart super center for everything from grocery to medicine.

We noticed that there are plenty of trees planted in park lot areas. We guess those trees are pine trees like.

Here in Lousiana, we have several kind of pine trees, some of them are:

- The spruce pine tree (Pinus glabra)
- The longleaf pine tree (Pinus palustris)
- The loblolly pine tree (Pinus taeda)
- The slash pine tree (Pinus elliottii).
- The Virginia pine tree (Pinus virginiana)
- The shortleaf pine tree (Pinus echinata)

Pine trees mainly are evergreen, but some species change their leaves color to red to brown in the autumn, then fall down.

We know that leaves of pine trees at our neighborhood have changed colors during fall season. The tree and leaves re-grow in the spring.

Fig 02- Two pine trees at parking lot.

Fig 03- The trees produce nuts or seeds

We are quite surprising, after take a look closer to the branches that the trees are producing nuts or seeds at this time around, middle of May.

Like other trees in the northern hemisphere, the production followed the seasonal temperatures.

We read from literature that at least 20 species of pine trees produces nuts or seeds. Our pine nuts size is quite big enough with rounded shapes.

Most pine nuts are edible and good for sources of nutritional foods. Zero cholesterol and sodium.

Have you tried nuts of a pine tree?

Flash Flood at my Neighborhood - Nature 8b

Fig 01- Flood in our neighborhood recently

As you might know that our state, Louisiana experienced “highest rainfall” in 2016.

On that time, rainfall reached 510 mm (20 inches) in many parishes (territories), caused overflows in the streets, rivers and waterways. Rain dropped about “7.1 trillion gallons of water” in one week.

2016 great flood in Louisiana cost billion of dollar, estimated from US$ 10 to US$ 15 billion dollars.

Catastrophic Flooding had contributed to:

- damage of thousand houses
- submerge of thousand business
- loss of agricultural production
- 60 people dead

However, our current two days rainfall was very “small” compared to 2016 disaster. But, its flash flood was scary enough. 

Fig 02- Water covered streets

Fig 03- Garbage bins were floating from up streets

Fig 04- Flooding in front of several houses.

As you can see (please see Fig 01, 02 and 04 at above), the water had flown in front of the houses.

This flows dragging and moving around many things include:

- garbage bins
- branches
- leaves
- cars

From local news that 2 dead in our city, and totally 4 death in the state of Louisiana.

No one of my neighbors.

Since we got very early warning, and based on 2016 big flooding experienced, hence, we have a little bit “well prepare” to cope with this flooding.

Wild Animals and Birds in my Backyard – Nature 8a

Fig 01- The blue bird

Our kitchen faces backyard, so when we are cooking or just sitting, we could see many wild animals.

A lot are birds, but some are mammals, they are:

- raccoon
- squirrels
- cats (may be belong to neighbors, but I consider wild, since I don’t know who is the owner).
- variety of birds

In respect to birds that always visited my backyard during spring and summer seasons are:

- humming birds
- cardinals
- wood peckers
- Mocking birds
- Crows

Fig 02- A neighborhood cat

Fig 03- A crow flies away

Fig 04- A Crow sitting on the wire

One day we heard the sound of crow. The sound was “rattle” on our ear, then like “click and bell.”

We approached close and closely to photo taken, but it flies suddenly. Pictures are not good enough.

Actually, crows are abundance birds in my city, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It seems that they able to adapt to the city environment.

We may find crows every where. Birds are reasonable medium size.

Wing size when it open wide is around 32 to 40 inches (81 cm to 102 cm).

What do you think about crow?

What animals visit your backyard?

Alligator in the Nearby Neighborhood - Nature 7

As you might know that Louisiana state has alligators more compared to other states in America. About 3 (three) million alligators (farming and wild) are estimated living in the Louisiana.

Fig 01- An alligator seen in the canal

Therefore, it is not surprise if we may encounter alligators in the areas include:
- canal
- big or small river
- pond
- lakes
- swamps

- housing ditches

Fig 02- People, illustration only

Fig 03- At least two alligators seen in the canal.

Indeed, the alligator habitats might be nearby or quite far from our housing complexes.

Just for fun, can you count how many wild alligators at Figure (Fig-03) above?

I saw at least two alligators!

# Previous postings:
- The Rainbow Before Evening : Hot Summer in the USA – Temperature above 40 Celsius degree – Nature 6

- The Rainbow Before Evening : Can Six Dolar Drug Kill Covid 19 Virus? - Healthy Life 3

- The Rainbow Before Evening : What is Coronasomnia? - Healthy Life 2

- The Rainbow Before Evening : The Amphibians Near Extinct due to Fungus Disease – Science 5