It was the weekend and we did some sightseeing around Gainesville. As plant enthusiasts, Dr Gordon Burleigh, from the University of Florida, and I went to the local Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. Of course I had to see all the cycads. There was the native cycad Zamia floridana, which was surrounding one of the many gazebos. Some of the cycads were coning (which is how cycads reproduce). On the bottom right is a male plant with a pollen cone (from the genus Dioon), and on the left is a female plant with a seed cone (from the genus Zamia).
We also visited a sinkhole. Sinkholes are home to a unique flora and they are just stunning! There are many around, and the one we visited in Gainesville is called Devil's Millhopper. It was teeming with ferns (Thelypteris), and pines and oaks. And there's a raised series of stairs that led to the water at the bottom of the sinkhole. It's hard to capture the enormity of it but I've put a few pictures of it below.
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