Pain in the Grass

Take great care when walking on

A grassy dune or beach

Avoid the spiny sandburs

Is the lesson I would teach

Oddly it is classified

As a grass with flattened blade

The well protected prickly seed

Inflicts a pain I would not trade

To any other person

The one-seeded fruit may look benign

But as a kid the stalk of spurs

Was used like a cat-of nine

By bullies armed with barbed bouquets

A devilish construction

Persecuted mercilessly I was by

Weapons of grass destruction

The biological intent although

Is not to cause one dread

The seeds instead attach themselves

And from there the grass can spread

Food it is for larval forms

Of several butterflies

Like satyrs and many skippers

Just before they metamorphasize

The many forms of sandbur species

All members of the genus Cenchrus

Have caused a many manly men

To tiptoe along the seashells

The last thing I’ll say

I’ve saved for last

Please watch your step

For this pain in the grass

Prickly Pear Necessities

Wherever I wander, I keep one eye on the ground and one eye ahead in search of the next fun thing to write about. Occasionally this method leads to an inspiring, albeit, cross-eyed vision. Green Briars (Smilax sp.) are a particularly nasty, thorny vine. Field Sandspurs (Cenchrus incertus) are alarmingly painful and hurt as bad being pulled out as when they went in. The Florida Prickly Pear (Opuntia humifusa) is the grand daddy of local thorny plants with long, sturdy spines attached to fleshy, succulent pads. So far I’ve had the good fortune of avoiding them. A friend of mine? Not so lucky. 

© Pete Corradino

Watching someone stomp out of the woods like Yosemite Sam with a cactus pad and spines sticking out of their leg is cartoonishly comical. But it’s best to keep your amusement to yourself. It was hard not to feel his pain as he yanked each spine from his shin. In addition to the obvious barbs, smaller tufts of hair-like spines called glochids are located closer to the pad and can cause serious irritation. 

© Pete Corradino

Despite being torn from the parent plant, the cactus pad that ended up in my friend’s shin and subsequently discarded, is capable of putting down roots and continuing to grow. Prickly Pears are right at home in an astounding diversity of environments, from the coastal dunes of Massachusetts, to the sandstone cedar glades in Kentucky to the saw palmetto scrub of Florida. One thing they don’t tolerate is shade, but where there is sun, watch out for the Indian Fig as it’s also called. 

© Pete Corradino

In Florida, Prickly Pears bloom all year, producing a waxy, yellow flower that grows at the top of the pad. Eventually an edible, red “fig” remerges. Both fruit and pad are edible but all spines and glochids have to be removed. If you don’t want it stuck in your leg you certainly don’t want to ingest it. 

© Pete Corradino

The Prickly Pear is found throughout two-thirds of the United States and part of Canada, so watch your step and watch for critters that use the cactus as a spiny fortress. 

An Allergic Reaction to Suspense

If you’re the kind of person that has to peek under the Christmas tree before the day has arrived, go ahead and skip to the end. If you read the last page of a novel first or if you fast forward through the movie because you have to know “what is in the box!”, go ahead and skip to the end. I wouldn't want the suspense to kill you.

What is the fine specimen we have before us? It is a caterpillar entering the pupal stage before it becomes a butterfly. It has crawled up under a metal guardrail on a desolate road in the Everglades. Here it remains suspended, awaiting a transformative process that will entirely change its way of life. But which species will it become?

Brightly colored insects, reptiles and snakes are usually warning signs for predators to stay away. The caterpillars of this specie feed on passion flowers which cause them to be toxic.

While some predators ignore the warnings and suffer the consequences, others have adapted to the poison and can enjoy what most others can not. Will the fly on the bottom right of the caterpillar be one of those predators?

If the color wasn’t enough of a deterrent, the well-fortified exterior should repel the hungriest of predators. Surprisingly, the fierce looking spines are innocuous, flexible ornamentation that rounds out the repulsive costume.

Within a few days, the metamorphic process will conclude, the pupal casing will cleave and a beautiful butterfly will fly off, but which species?

If you skipped ahead from the opening paragraph, you’ve ruined it for everyone and now I won’t tell you what it is. But hey, what’s the fun of me telling you what is wrapped up in the package when it’s more fun to find out yourself. 

Twisted Nickers - The Knicker Bean

“Watch this magic trick” a friend said as he took a marble-sized nickerbean and rubbed it on a rough surface. I watched as he placed it on my skin. The burning sensation caused by that brief amount of friction, reminded me of a searing hot branding iron scorched on a cattle’s hide. I jerked my arm away. ‘We used to do that to each other when we were kids” he said with glee.

Never mind that the bark of the tree has been used to treat malaria and venereal diseases or that new leaves can alleviate tooth pain, this plant can be used to inflict mild harm on others! “Don’t do that again” I groused with fiery irritation.

The Nickerbean (Caesalpinia bonducella), aka Gray Nicker or Nicker Nut Tree is a thorny, shrub that grows along the sandy coastline of South Florida. It is native to Florida but can be found along coastal habitats around the world.

The spiny-limb and leaved shrub can grow to nearly five feet before sagging branches droop towards well-drained sandy soils. They can take root and grow from there. It’s a bushwhacker’s nightmare to clamber through a twisted, tangled jumble of vegetation.

Canary-yellow blooms grow on tall stalks year round and give way to a well-armored, clam-shaped seed pods. As they mature, the pods open and two gray seeds are released.

Seeds are washed from shore by tides and floods before the sea returns them to potentially suitable, sun-drenched, sandy soils. As the seeds float about, scarification, or “nicking” occurs. The seed casing is chipped away by sand, insects and animals. Once water enters the seed it germinates and can begin to grow.

Beans don’t always get nicked and I’ll pick up whole ones when I find them. Who can resist magic beans? If someone performs a “magic nickerbean trick” for you someday don’t get your nickers in a twist.