Botanical Gardens

The Bald Cypress Tree

Monarch Butterfly

I visited the Botanical Gardens this morning. It took my boyfriend and I took a while to find the entrance, which in fact was right beneath our noses the whole time. On our way in we grabbed a couple of maps just in case. The maps were color coded in numerical order. Every number represented a large insect that was hidden in the many areas of the gardens. 1: Praying Mantis; 2: Lady Bug; 3: Assassin Bug; 4: Damselfly; 5: Ants; 6: Dragon fly; 7: spider; 8: Grasshopper. Walking the path of the gardens was breath taking. There were so many different plants from The Globe Amarenth whose beautiful shades of pink contrasted with the bright green leaves of The Coco de Mer (double coconut) Tree. The scenery was amazing. All the different ecosystems had there own exhibits. I got a chance to walk the trail of The East Texas Pineywoods. I can honestly say that the environment along the trail left me speechless. I was at a loss of words when I saw the most beautiful tree I have ever seen, The Bald Cypress. It was extremely tall with nicely grown branches that lay horizontally across the stem. The leaves on the branches were brightly colored with a very light green base color which blended well with mixtures of orange and yellow shaded leaves that surrounded them. The orange and yellow are both hues of fire which gave me a sense of warmth as I walked along side them. The very natural and earthy trail formed a wide circle around a large pond. The pond looked smooth and calm except for a couple of white ducks swimming along the banks. In the center of the pond was my number 6 insect on my map. It was a large Dragon Fly floating along in the center of the pond. Overall my visit to The Botanical Gardens was not only great but educational as well.