A Neotropical Savanna

Seeing it with Michael – One of the first plants our friend and naturalist, Michael, pointed out to me during a tour of our newly purchased property was a young, shin-high shrub. He reached down and rubbed a leaf and said, “This one is a sandpaper plant,” or words to that effect. He had me feel the leaf, and sure enough, it was coarse as sandpaper.

We had already decided to keep as many trees as possible on the property, and to encourage other interesting plants, but when we saw that the leaves of the sandpaper plant also frequently took on a nice reddish color, we doubled our efforts to see that these plants did not get cut down, either by us or by our gardener.

Read more »

Suddenly, yellow is everywhere. I’m seeing the Mexican sunflower, Tithonia, in many more places this year than last year; and the spectacular buttercup tree, Cochlospermum, is beginning to show in some places. But in our savanna, right now, the showy yellow tree is a living fence – and member of the legume family, Fabaceae. It’s Diphysa americana, locally known as macano.

And when you get up close to the flowers on a sunny morning, their exuberance can take your breath away.

The petals drop off quite easily, leaving a yellow snow on the ground. Read more »