Zamia

A cycad from the permian period of our Earth's geologic and natural history.

The cycads are one of our oldest plant types and gave rise to the conifers. They survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and have naturalized in many parts of Florida.

One of my favorite non-fiction authors, the neurologist Oliver Sacks, has written about these fascinating plants in his book Island of the Colorblind.

Have been enjoying all the comments received about the back blips from my two weeks in the UK. Thanks all.....!! I spent a good part of the early evening yesterday getting all 14 days onto blipfoto. It was really difficult to make choices - not that all my photos were great, but that they brought back happy, happy memories!

For my personal enjoyment, I took several photos of people that I met, but they asked me not to post them on the internet, so I'm honoring their wishes. My two favorites were a pair of toddlers eating ice cream cones in York. They're sitting on a bench with their mums, and have wonderfully sticky chocolate smiles ;-0 The other fave is a quick snapshot of the taxicab driver who took me from the hostel to the York train station. He's a country and western music fan and his first trip to the US is going to be this fall to visit the 'home' of C&W in Nashville, Tennessee. He was just like a little kid telling me all about his plans and his favorite performers. The taxi ride was too short - I wanted to hear more ;-0 (He also called me 'luv' and 'pet' which made me feel briefly British!