Arelis

 The Unknown Place  

      While walking from the parking garage to my class, I used to ask myself why that little junk forest was there. However, my thoughts changed extremely the day that my classmates and I were assigned to go on the pineland and butterfly garden walk. When I arrived there, I was surprised because the place that I thought that had just careless things cast about was an important place for plants and animals. While I was listening and walking around the pineland and butterfly garden with the narrator, I could see and touch the variety of species. There were big plants, like pines, some small fragile animals, like caterpillars, carrying out their evolutionary process. Since that moment, I realized that every space does matter, whether it is small, or big green, or brown. I need to respect and pay more attention to my environment. I think that our environment is very important and necessary because each specie of plants, animals and humans needs each other in order to finish their cycle of life. 

Maylyn

Pine Rockland

A pine Rockland has many important uses for human beings, animals, and plants. There are some human uses from a pine Rockland, such as construction material, medical value from some kinds of roots, and pinesap for paper. It gives food sources for animals, for example, flowers, leaves, and other kinds of plants. In addition, pine trees make a lot of contributions to the natural system in habitat and food. It embellishes the environment and purifies the air. There are many native plants in this location, for instance, Gumbo-limbo, Coontie, Palmetto, Grapes and Slash pine. However, there are other invasive exotic species found in this area such as Burma Red and Brazilian Pepper. If we want to attract and keep butterflies in our garden, it is necessary to provide it with other plants such as lantana. Also, there some plants that benefit from others, and it is called symbiosis. There are three types of symbiosis: mutualism, which both parties benefit; parasitism, which one organism lives on another organism at expense of this host organism; and commensalisms, which one organism benefits the host. Some examples of commensalisms are Wild lime and Palmetto. Otherwise, the pineland is rocky and it can resist the sunlight, while other plants cannot survive. Environmentalists are concerned about pineland because it has been eliminated by urban growth, and it is susceptible to exotic plants.  You can reality see, how important the pineland is for our nature and our live.

Delia

Our Relationship with Life.

Many people in Miami think that The Everglades is the only unique natural habitat existing in South Florida. The walk on the pineland restoration area taught me that there is another precious ecological treasure that we must take care of. The beauty of the place amazed me. I had never imagined that under those bare trees could be that many different living organisms interconnected. After all the explanations that the guide gave us, there was only one word coming to my mind: life. All things around me were alive. I felt embraced by all sentient beings’ company. This rewarding experience made me think that our loneliness is caused by the lack of living things around us. Since humans are surrounded by non-living material objects, we are missing the fulfillment of living together with our soul mates, animals and plants. The walk made me understand that nature is alive, and that it can be a real friend that supports us and heals us from our eternal feeling of loneliness.

Olga

The Pineland And The Garden  

With the walk I realized that in order to enjoy nature it is not always necessary to go to a forest, we can get pleasure of it in our same city. For instance, our college provides us some places in which nature is waiting for us to interact with it and learn from it. The pineland is a place out of the ordinary where you can find different kinds of species. It not only has a variety of plans, but it also has animals that depend on one another to live. Furthermore, the garden is another place where life is the only thing that you can appreciate. I did not know that the college has these places, but now I am more conscious that nature is always surrounding us and we never appreciate it. We should pay more attention to the little things in our world because maybe those are the most important for our life

Pine Rocklands Walk 

Isavis

It is ironic to realize how a small part of a place can own several interesting discoveries that nobody will imagine.  Every time that I passed near the Pine Rockland, I thought why is the place was so slovenly and I asked myself if the college wasn’t taking care of that spot. Even though all that I used to think, I was wrong because now I realize that there are a lot of people that take care of that.  Furthermore, with the walk I will never imagined that that place contains species that are listed by the State as endangered.  Also, the variety of plants that are originated from all over the world and are being protected is a fascinating characteristic to learn from. Another important aspect that I will like to criticize is the type and amount of people that went to the walk. First, the majority out of the group were old people. That makes me think that there is not interesting from the young people. I think that the first action to take is to invite the new generation to help to conserve this exotic species and to learn more about what we have so near of us and we are not aware of that. Second, how small was the group. Maybe if we would not be there the group were even smaller.  The problems that are happened actually are making to forget other things that are equally important.  For that reason, I think that is necessary to increase the information and seminaries about this problem that concerns not only plants endangered but also animals, which are important in our world too

Santiago 

While I was at a park consisting of lot of pine trees at the college, I felt very anxious because I wanted to know more about the pineland. The subject was very interesting, and the walking tour was very nice even with the hot weather. I had the opportunity to learn  more about the exotic plants that grow in Miami. After the walk, I compared it to my country’s plants, and I discerned differences between both countries. The kinds of plants and all the biodiversity around the park were different. Something really interesting was that it increased my knowledge about the variety of plants in both countries. The world is changing all the time for me because I am learning new things about the world and myself, and it was a nice experience to be familiar with this part of nature. On the other hand, my country also has a nice natural environment, but it is different too, It is different because we have a tropical rain forest. Moreover, seeing the butterfly park at the end of the tour was a gift for us. Then we went home very happy about the incredible things we learned during the tour.  

Yureni

Pineland Tip Walk

Since I went to Pineland and Butterfly Garden Walk, I realized that it is not necessary to travel to big places to look for a beautiful environment. I never thought that I would some day be walking in such a close place like this.  When I was walking and listening to the narrator, my awareness and sensitivity towards nature became stronger. I could never imagine that such a little place embraced such a vast variety of plants and animals.  The thing that impressed me the most was when I touched the inoffensive caterpillar waiting for its evolutionary process.  I would like some day to have a big garden full of butterflies and native Florida species. Since that moment, I learned how to preserve nature and pay more attention to it.  

Andrea

Before going on the walk I did not even realize that those t rees that were there. They are just there in front of us, and we do not see them. We can pass right next to them, but we do not pay attention to them. At the beginning when I came there, I did not know that that place was there. Then, when the guide started to talk about the caterpillars and he just looked down and there was one. It was amazing; I could never imagine that they were. When that happened, I realized that if you are observant you can find and experience a lot of things. When you live in a routine and you do not take time to watch the little, but essential things that are in the out side world, you cannot feel the real meaning of life.  That help me to be more aware about was it is going on in “my world” and in the out side world.  

Fabiana

Pine Rocklands

South Florida’s Pine rocklands are a fired-maintained pine forest with a mixture of tropical and climate under story plant. Before Miami’s settlement, pine rocklands encompassed 185,00 acres of Miami-Dade County. Nowadays, development has reduced this habitat to approximately 4,000 acres (outside of Everglades National Park) living only 2% of the original coverage. Consequently, South Florida Pine Rocklands are one of the most endangered eco-regions on the earth. Pine rocklands, which are a unique habitat on the earth, need fire to survive. As a result of the fire, pines have a very hard wood that is used by humans as a construction material. Another examples of uses are Palmetto berries that were used as food by the Native American Indians, and Cootie, which was used as thickener, as a flour substitute, and for scratching. Besides human uses, pine rockland provides habitat for plants and animals. Also, it provides food for animals, such as Fire bush, Lantana, Cassia and Cabbage Palm, which feed caterpillars, birds, and bugs.   In the pine rockland we can find several examples of symbiosis, which is a special partnership among trees, can be divided in three categories: Mutualism is where two trees or more provide their nutrients to each other.   Communalism is when two or more trees or plants live together without providing anything to each to other. Parasitism is when only one of the trees or plant takes benefits from the other without reciprocity. As an example of communalism we can mention Slash pine, and Wild Lime and Green Berries are example of parasitism.

Jesus 

 Pine Rockland and Hammock

The walk we had two weeks ago at the Pine Rockland and Hammock garden in MDC, Kendall Campus, provided us with some important information about this habitat.  The human have two main uses from the materials of Pine Rockland, which are as wood used for construction and second is the Coontie, which is used as thickener. Some of the food sources for animals we could identify were the nectars, pollens and berries from the flowers, and the seeds and insects which are food for birds. One of the most important things about pine trees is that they make the perfect habitat for animals and plants so they contribute a lot to the natural system and preserve the environment. Some of the native plants you find in the pine rockland are the Firebush, which is a big bush of little fuchsia flowers, the Cassia, which is a bush with yellow flowers and brilliant green leaves, and the Lantana, which is also a bush with yellow flowers and small green leaves also. We observed examples of symbiosis such as Epitheric, which as communalism example, the wild lime is a Parasitism example, and the Green Brier, which is another example of Parasitism. The most invasive exotic specie we found was the Burma Reeo that when it burns, it burns pines with its intensive hot and it also blocks the sun that other plants need to grow up. The most important ecological difference between the pineland and the grassy area around it is that the pineland has more biodiversity. If you want to be able to attract butterflies in your garden you need to have plants with flowers that are necessary to feed those caterpillars which are baby butterflies. Hammock contains tropical hardwoods, and a pineland on the other hand, contains a mix of tropical and fire maintained forests. To conclude, its significant to know that, since the Pine Rocklands are not protected like the everglades, environmentalists are concerned because this habitat is endangered of the high construction rate and the rapid population growth; therefore, there is only 2% left of the original environment.  

Rene

Pine rocklands contain the highest plant diversity of any other habitat in Florida and are home to more than 400 native plants. Pine rocklands have being used by people for construction and medical uses. For example, Cycad, which is a poisonous plant, is used for cooking. People can wash the poison and use it. In addition, in the pine rocklands there exist a plant animal association. For instance, Cycad needs a particular caterpillar to grow, whereas cycad provides habitat to caterpillar.

Habitat and food are contributions that the pine trees make to the natural system. There are food sources for animals such as berries, leaves, flowers, and insects that nature provides to them in order for them to survive. On the other hand, in the pine rocklands one can find diversities of native plants such as Brazilian Pepper, Dade-County Slash Pine, Palmetto, Fire Bush, Coontie and others kinds of plants that can attract and keep the butterfly population alive. Actually, the pine rocklands are endangered habitat.

Fire plays an important role in many natural ecosystems; however, it plays a significant one for pine rocklands. Pine rocklands species have adapted to cyclic fires and depend on fire for their survival.      Another kinds of species found in the pine rocklands  1)     Open canopy forest  2)     Wild coffee 3)     Florida Trima 4)     Locals berry 5)     Gumbo-limbo 6)     Oak 7)     Indian Dasnura.