The Land of Twisted Trees

View from the observation tower, Sunshine Skyway Bridge in distance

​I visited the Emerson Point Preserve in Palmetto, Florida in April 2014, a peninsula on the border of the Manatee River and Tampa Bay. On the map it is on an island, but this is only because of a small canal. The preserve rules prohibit collecting, walking off-trail, and alcohol. Despite this, it was still pretty fun.

​I saw a lot of warped trees such as these:

​​I also found this tree with the worst sunburn I have ever seen:

​I saw tiny, hard seeds/berries that greatly resembled ladybugs (red with a black spot). There were many cacti and century plants sticking out into the trail. I saw large, purple flowers with pink stripes and large, pink flowers with pink stripes. They were nearly identical. On these flowers was a black butterfly with blue spots and a bluish sheen (likely a mangrove skipper). It crawled so deep into one of the flowers that I was able to briefly trap it inside by gently pinching the flower base shut. I also saw a zebra long-wing butterfly, a duck, a collar snake, a red-thorned spider (possibly Gasteracantha cancriformis), and these mangrove crabs:

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