A French king,a dissolute gambler, a convent and a crack house – plus Jelly Roll Morton’s jazz genius – this neighborhood has embodied the city’s renewing vigor The omnipresent “resurrection fern” abounds here in current Orleans, and but solely on live oaks. They dwindle to nothing and are barely visible in dry times. Then after one touch of nourishing rain,life explodes and the oaks find themselves covered with them. It’s a cycle that repeats itself dozens of times during the year.
Resurrection ferns get their food from the air and from water that collects on the outer surface of the oak’s bark, rather than from the tree itself. Scientists bear estimated that the dehydrated plant can last a century with no moisture, and yet reach back to life after a single rain shower. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com