CS BOCA RATON
COASTAL SYSTEMS JOURNAL TWO
BY LIS G. CONTOLI
BOCA RATON
09/04/2018
VISITING GUMBO LIMBO NATURE CENTER
WEATHER
Temperature: 84 – 88°F
Humidity: 75%
Wind: East 11.807 MPH
REFLECTION
Gumbo Limbo Nature Center was an amazing experience. I learned so much. The staff were so informative and friendly that I would definitely go back. Gumbo Limbo Nature Center is named after the Gumbo Limbo tree. The Gumbo Limbo tree is also known as “The tourist tree”, because its bark gets red and then starts to peel off. They obviously had one there and it was beautiful. (Up-close picture below).
Right after Professor Arena showed us the flora and fauna found on their location, and finished looking at the Gumbo Limbo tree, we were told by one of the staffs to go inside because a lightning storm was on its way. Once again, since we are in Florida and I’ve lived here for 17 years, I knew that it wasn’t going to last long, and we could get back to our tour in no time.
Before this even happened, we checked out plants, trees, spiders and butterflies. I love plants, and I love gardening. I consider myself a green thumb, so to me it was very interesting to look at many different types of plants. Some of which are in the pictures below.
The beautiful Beautyberry (Callicarpa Americana) No wonder they included beauty in the name, because it is truly a beauty.
Firespike (Odontonema strictum)
Coontie (Zamia Floridana)
Among these plants in the pictures above, I saw Bloodberry (Cordia globosa) AKA Butterfly sage, Barbados Cherry (Malphigia emarginata), Chapman’s Senna (Senna Mexicana var. chapmanii), Psychotria nervosa AKA wild coffee, Popcorn Cassia (Cassia didymobotrya), and others. I also saw a Sabal palmetto, also known as cabbage-palm, which is the Florida’s state tree. As I mentioned before, there was also butterflies, and their home are the plants seen and mentioned above, which are considered part of GLNC’s Butterfly garden.
On the left is the Ruddy Daggerwing (Marpesia petreus), on the right it’s the Zebra Longwing (Heliconius charitonius), which is the Florida State Butterfly, and on the bottom is the Monarch (Danaus plexippus).
Gumbo Limbo Nature Center doesn’t just have plants and butterflies, but marine wildlife too. This was my favorite part, because they have sea turtle conservation and rehabilitation. As we were waiting for the lightning storm to pass, I was speaking to the staff at the front desk, and they were telling me how sweet and special a Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas) that they saved is, and to go check the tank out. They told me, that as soon as you get near the tank, Koda (Turtle’s name) comes up to greet you. That’s exactly what happened when I came close to it. I fell in love.
Koda was hit by a boat which caused fibropapilloma tumors on flippers. This accident paralyzed the back flippers and caused buoyancy problems, which they also call this “bubble butt”, because air gets in the shell and makes the turtle float and not be able to dive down into the water. Staff at GLNC placed a weight were the shell broke to help Koda swim and dive normally. There are many cases like these. Some turtles go weeks without eating until they are found and taken for help or end up dying out of starvation. Because of this, I think this place is very special. It gives these injured turtles a chance to keep living. I felt very sad that these kinds of injuries are caused by human activities, but I am grateful for places like Gumbo Limbo Nature Center and their staff for all of the work they do to help these animals.
A picture of the adorable permanent resident Koda.