Bianca's Thoughts On The Field Trip To ECHO:

I thought that the field trip was informative and actually quite fun. I enjoyed seeing the different fruit trees such as banana, avocado, chaya, moringa, and many more. One thing that I found interesting was that you can chop up moringa seeds and use them to basically filter water. The particles in the water stick to the crushed moringa seeds and float to the bottom, once filtered with paper, let the water sit in the sun for some hours so the heat can kill the bacteria. I think that is a great thing to teach people from different parts of the world who do not have clean running water. I also enjoyed seeing Lilly the goat. I though she was adorable and made the field the trip a little more exciting for me considering that I love animals. This field trip made me want to start my own garden and plant my own fruits and vegetables. It goes to show that all the hard work in the beginning pays off in an incredible way.

Mical's Thoughts On The Field Trip To ECHO:

I thought the field trip to ECHO was very informative with all the different types of plants, fruits and vegetables ECHO had to offer. One thing that I learned was about the fruit called the Miracle Fruit and what you do is suck on it for about a minute and spit it out. After that anything that you eat that's  bitter or sour would automatically taste sweet. I really want to try this to see if this is really true.

Mike's Thought's On The Field Trip To ECHO:

 

ECHO was a very educational experience. Seeing all the inventive ways they came up with to use what most of us would consider trash was pretty impressive. I really liked the fact that ECHO provides a nursery for people to purchase plants. It promotes people growing their own garden and provides a easier way of doing it. Also, I liked the demonstrations that they provided of how to create a garden in urban environments.

Marnie's Thoughts On The Field Trip To ECHO:

I really liked visiting ECHO. I will definitely be back to buy some plants. My favorite plant was the cranberry hibiscus, because it tastes just like candy. ECHO has such a large variety of demonstration gardens that you can see how to plant edibles in both large spaces and urban spaces in a sustainable fashion.

Avocado Tree & Perennial Peanut

 

 

 

Bamboo

 

 

Bananas

 

 

Chaya

 

Cranberry Hibscus

 

 

Dragonfruit

 

 

Jelly Palm

 

 

Katuk

 

 

Lemongrass

 

 

Mangoes

 

 

Moringa

 

 

 

Pineapple

 

 

 

Prickly Pear

Rice

Mical's Thought's On Friday's Field Trip To Estero Island Historic Cottage & Canoeing at Vester Field Station:

I was greatly amazed to finally come across a cottage in Fort Myers and one with such rich history. Looking at the historical artifacts was just mind blowing to me that it was something people used about 100 plus years before my time. The Canoeing trip was also a pretty decent experience considering that we got rained on making our way back to the dock. We were able to see two different types of Mangrove trees however; the Red Mangrove tree and the Black Mangrove tree. It was a little hard to tell the difference between to the two when there aren't side by side together. Overall the field trip was a great experience for me and I'm sure the rest of the class also.

Marnie's Thought's On Friday's Field Trip To Estero Island Historic Cottage & Canoeing at Vester Field Station:

Visiting the historic cottage on Estero Island was enlightening; I have been through the Fort Myers Beach/Bonita Beach area a lot and never even knew the cottage existed. I had no idea that Estero Island has such a rich history and had assumed that it was unpopulated until recently. I admire the spirit of the homesteaders that tried to farm the land from gulf to bay, even though the salt made them fail. I did know that the Calusa Indians were present in the area, but I didn't know that their capital was on Mound Key. After this visit, I will definitely pay more attention to the ecological issues along the coast of Southwest Florida.

Mike's Thought's On Calusa Nature Center:

I really enjoyed our first off-campus trip to the Caloosa Nature Center. The tour guide was very informative about the species of plants and where and why they were located there. I learned things like trees will grow around certain objects when they are in their way of growing, such as the boardwalk. I also learned that ferns have a interesting way of reproducing, that is exclusive to them. I particularly liked the bird exhibit where they had eagles, hawks, vultures and bird species. All of the animals they owned were injured and nursed backed to health but unfortunately have been domesticated so they cannot be re-entered into the wild.

Mical's Thoughts On The Field Trip To Calusa Nature Center:

This week we went to the Calusa Nature Center and learned about the different type of plants that are grown there and their history in the world today. For the first time in my life I have seen what poison ivy looks. Now I am able to tell the difference between poison and other plants. Poison Ivy has little red tips on it and releases a toxin, if it comes in contact with skin the you start to breakout in a rash. You can also breath in the poison ivy if you set it on fire, releasing the toxin into the air.

Bianca's Thoughts On Class & The Field Trip To Calusa Nature Center:

I really enjoyed class this week. Our discussions were filled with useful information, however I didn’t like that most of the responses were redundant and a lot of class time was spent on listening to students explain one thing in particular. The field trip to the Calusa Nature Center was interesting and surprisingly I really enjoyed myself. My favorite part of the trip was watching the guy feed the alligators. I also enjoyed looking at all the cool animals that they had upstairs such as the owls, snakes, and the turtles. My favorite animal I must say was Elvis the pig. I didn’t really enjoy the trail walk, which I put most of the blame on the heat.  I did however; learn that poison ivy has three leaves coming out from a central point. Before that trip, I never knew how to identify poison ivy, and now I do. I also learned that the Virginia creeper is in the same family as poison ivy, but it actually relieves the symptoms of poison ivy.

Marnie's Thoughts About The Field Trip To Calusa Nature Center:

At the Calusa Nature Center I learned a lot about the plants native to Fort Myers. I really liked the trail, but my favorite part was watching the alligators being fed. I didn't know that the Saw Palm was named because of the barbs on its fronds. I also learned that Alligator Flags are called that because alligators like the areas where they grow.

Bromeliad

 

Blood Lichen

 

Virginia Creeper

 

Slash Pine

 

Saw Palm

 

Sabal Palm

 

Royal Palm

 

Rabbits Foot Fern

 

Poison Ivy

 

Melaleuca

 

Cypress

 

Bipinnate Fern

 

Alligator Flag

 

This past week our Colloquium class took a field trip to FGCU's Food Forest. You can see the pictures taken by Marnie on our blog of the different types of plants grown at the food forest. There were a couple of things that we learned from the food forests president, Arlo Simonds. Marnie learned the Moringa tree can grow 12 feet in one year while Bianca learned that the mimosa plant fixes nitrogen into the soil. She also discovered that the Spanish needle has twice the nutrients of spinach and it's medicinal if you roll it up and rub it on your skin for bug bits. There are 6 butterfly species that rely on this plant for a food source. Mical learned you can put cardboard on top of weeds and water it down so it gets heavy and breakdown more easily to kill weeds. We all took some Chaya and was told by Arlo on how we could boil it for about 20 minutes and add our own spices eat it. Chaya is actually one of the most healthy plants on the planet that a human can consume.

 

Spanish Needle

 

 

Tickseed

Sweet Potato

Pineapple & Firebush

 

Pigeon Pea

 

Papaya

 

Moringa

 

Mimosa

 

Food Forest Sign

 

 

Dune Sunflowers

 

 

Chaya

 

 

Beauty Berry

 

Barbados Cherry