John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park — Tropical Hardwood Hammock
This is the Grove Trail, one of two at Pennekamp that cuts through the park's tropical hardwood hammocks. Note the trees with blotchy bright orange and black spots, one at the extreme left of the photo and the other about a quarter of the way in from the right. These are poisonwood trees, so called because the sap contains the same skin irritant as poison ivy and poison oak: urushiol. All parts of the tree contain the stuff, but the berries are a favorite food of the rare white-crowned pigeon. The tree to the immediate right of the first poisonwood tree is gumbo limbo, the so-call tourist tree because of its red and peeling bark. Check the links below for more info on both trees — Photo by David Sedore
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