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Okefenokee Swamp Park, Waycross, Georgia.
The next day it was still raining, and it rained all day. Normal people would have stayed indoors.
But no ... we drove up to Georgia, to the Okefenokee Swamp.
Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is a flowering plant that grows upon larger trees, commonly the southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) or bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) in the southeastern United States from Texas and Florida north to southern Arkansas and Virginia. It is also native to much of Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Central America, South America and the West Indies as well as being naturalized in Queensland (Australia) and in French Polynesia.
The plant's specific name usneoides means "resembling Usnea", and it indeed closely resembles its namesake Usnea, also known as beard lichen, but in fact Spanish moss is neither a moss nor a lichen. Instead, it is a flowering plant (angiosperm) in the family Bromeliaceae (the Bromeliads) that grows hanging from tree branches in full sun or partial shade.
Spanish moss is an epiphyte which absorbs nutrients (especially calcium) and water from the air and rainfall. Spanish moss was once colloquially known as "air plant".[8]
While it rarely kills the trees upon which it grows, it lowers their growth rate by reducing the amount of light reaching a tree's own leaves. It also increases wind resistance, which can prove fatal to the host tree in a hurricane.
In the southern U.S., the plant seems to show a preference for growth on southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) or bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) because of these trees' high rates of foliar mineral leaching (calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus) providing an abundant supply of nutrients to the plant, but it can also colonize other tree species such as sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua), crepe-myrtles (Lagerstroemia spp.), other oaks, and even pines.
Spanish moss shelters a number of creatures, including rat snakes and three species of bats. One species of jumping spider, Pelegrina tillandsiae, has been found only on Spanish moss. Chiggers, though widely assumed to infest Spanish moss, were not present among thousands of other insects identified in one study.
Camera: Canon EOS 7D Mk II, Lens: Tamron 28-300mm, Processed in Lightroom CC, onOne Perfect Effects and Topaz Impressions. onOne Presets: Dynamic Contrast: Soft, Angel Glow, and Subtle Vignette. Topaz: Van Gogh II
Okefenokee Swamp Park, Waycross, Georgia.
The next day it was still raining, and it rained all day. Normal people would have stayed indoors.
But no ... we drove up to Georgia, to the Okefenokee Swamp.
The entry to the Park includes a boat trip ... although we appeared to be the only two visitors that day, they still ran it. It was brilliant ... and really wet and swampy!
Okefenokee Swamp Park, Waycross, Georgia.
The next day it was still raining, and it rained all day. Normal people would have stayed indoors.
But no ... we drove up to Georgia, to the Okefenokee Swamp.
The entrance also included a little train ride around the swamp. Again ... just for the two of us.
The trees, bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), are deciduous conifers that shed their leaves in winter. The swamp goes on for 30 to 50 kilometers in every direction from here. Most of it is less open than this.
Okefenokee Swamp Park, Waycross, Georgia.
The next day it was still raining, and it rained all day. Normal people would have stayed indoors.
But no ... we drove up to Georgia, to the Okefenokee Swamp.
The entry to the Park includes a boat trip ... although we appeared to be the only two visitors that day, they still ran it. It was brilliant ... and really wet and swampy!
Okefenokee Swamp Park, Waycross, Georgia.
The next day it was still raining, and it rained all day. Normal people would have stayed indoors.
But no ... we drove up to Georgia, to the Okefenokee Swamp.
The entry to the Park includes a boat trip ... although we appeared to be the only two visitors that day, they still ran it. It was brilliant ... and really wet and swampy!
We first tried to go to the Okefenokee Swamp in 1985 but were told it was closed due to a drought. In 2004, we considered trying go there again on another vacation through the Southeast, but it had been another dry year. Finally, in 2018, we were able to go.
Two well known rivers begin in the Okefenokee: The St. Mary’s River and the Suwannee River.
The St. Mary’s River flows all the way to the Atlantic Ocean and is 190 miles long.
The Suwannee River is the principle outlet of the swamp. The Suwannee flows from the west side of the swamp and empties into the Gulf of Mexico near Cedar Key, Florida. The Suwannee River is 280 miles long.
A very long time ago, the coast of Georgia was in a different place. It was much farther inland, and the part of land that is now the Okefenokee Swamp was just the ocean floor. A sandbar developed out in the ocean, and it cut off this area from the rest of the ocean. This made a kind of pool of water that was separate from the ocean, and that pool filled with rainwater and runoff water, and became a pool of fresh water (instead of the salt water it used to be).
There are many lakes scattered throughout the Okefenokee. Sixty of these lakes are big enough to be named. Some are forty feet deep! Others are only two or three feet deep.
Average annual temperature is 68 degrees F. The average annual rainfall is 60 inches.
Rainfall accounts for approximately 95% of the water in the Okefenokee Swamp. 80% of the rainfall is returned to the atmosphere by evapotranspiration, leaving only 20% to find its way down the Suwannee and St. Mary’s Rivers.
Okefenokee Swamp
Waycross, Georgia
Okefenokee Swamp Park, Waycross, Georgia.
The next day it was still raining, and it rained all day. Normal people would have stayed indoors.
But no ... we drove up to Georgia, to the Okefenokee Swamp.
This was taken in the Stephen C Foster Park in the Okefenokee swamp in Southern Georgia. This was a side trip on our way to North Carolina and since we had Rufus with us, we couldn't take a boat tour, which is the only way to really see the vast swamp.
We first tried to go to the Okefenokee Swamp in 1985 but were told it was closed due to a drought. In 2004, we considered trying go there again on another vacation through the Southeast, but it had been another dry year. Finally, in 2018, we were able to go.
We first tried to go to the Okefenokee Swamp in 1985 but were told it was closed due to a drought. In 2004, we considered trying go there again on another vacation through the Southeast, but it had been another dry year. Finally, in 2018, we were able to go.
Okefenokee Swamp Park, Waycross, Georgia.
The next day it was still raining, and it rained all day. Normal people would have stayed indoors.
But no ... we drove up to Georgia, to the Okefenokee Swamp.
After the boat trip and the train ride there was one more thing that just had to be done ... a walk through the swamp on the boardwalk, to the observation tower.
We first tried to go to the Okefenokee Swamp in 1985 but were told it was closed due to a drought. In 2004, we considered trying go there again on another vacation through the Southeast, but it had been another dry year. Finally, in 2018, we were able to go.
Okefenokee Swamp Park, Waycross, Georgia.
The next day it was still raining, and it rained all day. Normal people would have stayed indoors.
But no ... we drove up to Georgia, to the Okefenokee Swamp.
After the boat trip and the train ride there was one more thing that just had to be done ... a walk through the swamp on the boardwalk, to the observation tower.
The view was brilliant from up there ... you get a better idea of just how big the Okefenokee really is. You can't see any end to it ...
Okefenokee Swamp Park, Waycross, Georgia.
The next day it was still raining, and it rained all day. Normal people would have stayed indoors.
But no ... we drove up to Georgia, to the Okefenokee Swamp.
After the boat trip and the train ride there was one more thing that just had to be done ... a walk through the swamp on the boardwalk, to the observation tower.
Okefenokee Swamp Park, Waycross, Georgia.
The next day it was still raining, and it rained all day. Normal people would have stayed indoors.
But no ... we drove up to Georgia, to the Okefenokee Swamp.