Pilippe Park

Temperature: 90 degrees

Weather condition- mostly cloudy 70% coverage, slight breeze

Location: On Tampa Bay, tucked away within Safety Harbor

History: Oldest park in Pinellas county

            In 1948 Odet Philippe purchased the land

-          He introduced citrus and cigar making to the area

Indian mound Shell mound located on property

-          Last evidence in all of Pinellas County that Native Americans were here

On this trip the objective was to stay in an ecosystem and make as many observations as possible, after 15-30 minutes we then moved on to a different ecosystem and made additional observations.  The two ecosystems observed were: Hammock and Shore Line.  Each ecosystem offered variations of species and even soil type. With the Hammock the soil was dark, containing more organic matter, and more vegetation coverage was present. In the Shore Line ecosystem, the soil was sandy and the ground had some covering of pine needles from the Pine Trees, Pine needles can increase acidity within the soil. The most interesting thing was observing the Florida Mangrove racer. I have never seen a snake swimming before.  There were native plants such as Oak trees and the 3 mangrove species as well as invasive such as Brazilian Pepper and Elephant Ear plants. It was also interesting to see citrus trees still thriving within the park.