Weedon Island Green Space

A little bit of History How did Weedon Island get its name? What businesses were here in the past?

Station 2: BOARDWALK BEGINS You are leaving the high ridge of limestone (calcium carbonate) and the upland ecosystem of slash pines, palm trees, willows, and saltbush. These are the plants we saw.

As the high ridge slopes down to the wetlands, the ecosystem changes to mangroves, mosquito ditches, and mud holes for fiddler crabs. Station 2

Station 3: MUDDY OPENING TO THE RIGHT Look for the “sticks” in the mud. These are the pneumatophores of the black mangroves. They allow air to get down to the roots of these trees so they can grow in the wetland. Black mangroves are salt excreters. They take in the salt water and excrete the salt out through their leaves. This salt gives the leaves a dull look. The saltier the water; the duller the leaves. Only black mangroves have pneumatophores.

Station 4:PURPLE BERRIES ON RIGHT These purple berries are from a native bush called beauty berry. Wildlife love the berries, but they are very poisonous to man. Some of the scat of the raccoons is on the boardwalk. You can see they eat a lot of these berries. Beauty berries are not wetland plants. They are growing because of a man-made “island” from when the boardwalk was built. Wherever high ground appears, native plants for high ground have grown.