Insects, Plants, Fungi and Animals
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The Colorful and Interesting Fungi Found Here
Insect life isn’t the only diverse ecological realm at Cactus Island; mycological organisms in their bright colors and curious forms also shine within our slice of natural ecology. I’m not really a ‘shroom guy, but what grabs me, grabs me……especially so when it could end up in a drawing or painting. This tells us that our sandy soil ecology is healthy and that there is a vast network of underground mycelia living in symbiosis with plant and tree roots. When it rains it becomes evident in the fruiting bodies that quickly emerge, last for a few days and disappear as quickly as they appeared. Several times, while remodeling the house,…
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The magnificent rainbow scarab dung beetle, genus Phanaeus (plus not-so-magnificent former insects harming the gardens)
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What’s that Sand Mound on my Pasture!?
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Cactus Island blog begins!
It has been just over eleven months since we moved here in rural Williston, Fl from down South in Estero, and what a monumental restorative effort it has been. My mother named the 8.21 acre property on a sub-tropically wooded sand hill “Cactus Island”, as old time Florida settlers once called such highground areas “islands”. It is also a reference to the abundant yellow-flowering prickly pear cacti found throughout the property and to the enormous numbers of Florida-compatible cacti I’ve grown from seed in the ever-expanding nursery. We completely hand-renovated the house, built food garden enclosures, created permaculture mounds for orchards and restored the land by manually weeding it of…
