Philippe Park

Temperature : 90 degrees 

Cloud coverage : 30%

Air conditions : cross breeze 

Philippe park is a very old park, Odet Philippe purchased the land in 1948 to grow citrus fruits. There is a Tocobaga Indian mound located in the park which is the last remaining evidence of native Americans in Pinellas county and is kind of hard to spot it just looks like a hill. 

The objective of this trip was to observe different ecosystems as possible in 15 minute intervals. During our time at the park we observed two ecosystems a Hammock (seen in the picture above) and a shore line (seen in the picture below). I found 15 different types of plants and animals in the hammock environment. The hammock was being taken over by an invasive species known as air potatoes.Hammock are higher elevation that shorelines and seem to have more diverse plant population than a shore line. Shore lines are sea level and have plants that are capable of utilizing salt or brackish water. We found a variety of mangrove trees at the shore line with a couple of pines a few feet inland. We found a mangrove snake and some small fish that were using the mangrove roots to escape larger predators.

In conclusion Philippe Park was very fun to visit and provides many different activities such as running and bike paths, fishing, swimming and access to many different ecosystems all in one park.