Thursday June 13

On Thursday June 13th our class went to Lovers Key State Park. When we arrived we walked on the board walk stopping at certain places talking about each mangrove. Mr. Morris stopped and he talked to us about each mangrove. There are three different mangroves: black mangroves or courida, red mangroves or red mango and white mangroves. The black mangroves can be easily identified by their roots that are specialized to take it oxygen. Their seeds can be edible if cooked right, but if they are not they can be toxic. The red mangroves are evergreen trees. They have an elaborate prop and aerial root which stabilizes the trees. The roots contain a waxy substance which help keep salt out. If salt does get into the roots it is deposited onto older leaves and the tree then sheds them. The white mangroves are the shortest out of all three of the species. The bark is light brown to reddish dark brown, and the leaves are ovate. The leaves on the white mangrove have adapted to their salty environment, allowing salt to pass from inside the tree to the outside. The leaves are then coated with speckled white salt crystals which are what gives this species its name, white mangrove. After he discussed these mangroves with us as a class, we were free to search the beach on our own. As I walked down the beach I took it all in. It was such a peaceful feeling. I have always loved the beach so going on this field trip was very exciting. I laid on the sand for a while looking at the shells and before we had to go back on to the bus I went into the water. The water was very nice, not too hot, not too cold. After I got out of the water I walked down the beach and a few of us went on the boardwalk. We saw Mr. Morris on the boardwalk looking for a huge Snook he spotted earlier. After standing there looking for the Snook we finally saw it. It was huge about 3 to 4 feet, such an awesome sight. Overall the field trip was a very informative and peaceful day.