The Southern Live Oak branch hangs over the trail and, depending on whether it has been raining or not, the branch will be covered with a lush green fern or you will see curled dead-looking brown fronds. The first two pictures show this. Whichever it is. you are looking at the Resurrection Fern (Pleopeltis polypodioides) which has the ablility to loose 97% of its water during drought. Most other plants can only loose 10% of their water before they die but Resurrection Fern will come back from the "dead" after a good rain and if you look elsewhere along the branches and trunk of the Oak, you may find some that is green in a moist area. Resurrection Fern, like Spanish Moss, is an epiphyte, meaning it lives on top of another plant. It is not a parasite and gets all of its water and nutrients from the rain and whatever dust and dirt blows in on it.
Climbing up the trunk of Oak and spreading on the ground out to the trail is a vine with ferny bright green leaves. This is the Rosary Pea or Crab Eyes (Abra precatorius). It is a vine that has roots in the ground and climbs up and over other growth in the hammock. The Rosary Pea is an exotic that has become invasive, threatening to cover native plants and reduce native biodiversity. Look for the brown pods with bright red seeds. These seeds were strung for rosaries, jewelry, and other decoration, however they are very poisonous and the people handling them sometimes got sick. It is best not even to pick them up and children should not handle them at all. Rosary Pea has beautiful lavender flowers that bloom during October.
