Notice the bright green stretch marks! World's fastest growing tree.
About 10 years ago, a neighbor gave me a 2 gallon can with a scrawny, leggy plant in it and predicted great things. Sounded like a Jack-in-the-Bean-Stalk story at the time but now I believe his outlandish tale. My Silk Floss started quickly growing and growing. And today it's 60 feet high!
The thick green trunk is covered with big fiercely strong and sharp spines. Locals here call it Monkey Tree because they say only monkeys can climb it. The spines break off, wear down and turn gray as the tree ages. Silk Floss trees grow so rapidly that they get bright green stretch marks! Some experts say it's the fastest growing tree in the world... and based on my experience... I think they may be right!
When Silk Floss trees mature, they shed their leaves in September and, all bare, break into a glorious display of gorgeous pink or purple five-petaled flowers. The flowers are followed by pear-shaped capsules filled with seeds embedded in silky white floss. The floss, or Kapok, extracted from the pods is a cotton-like substance with smooth fibers – too smooth for textile thread – that's used to stuff life preservers, saddles, cushions and mattresses. The primary use is for life preservers as the floss can support 30 times its own weight in water!
About 10 years ago, a neighbor gave me a 2 gallon can with a scrawny, leggy plant in it and predicted great things. Sounded like a Jack-in-the-Bean-Stalk story at the time but now I believe his outlandish tale. My Silk Floss started quickly growing and growing. And today it's 60 feet high!
The thick green trunk is covered with big fiercely strong and sharp spines. Locals here call it Monkey Tree because they say only monkeys can climb it. The spines break off, wear down and turn gray as the tree ages. Silk Floss trees grow so rapidly that they get bright green stretch marks! Some experts say it's the fastest growing tree in the world... and based on my experience... I think they may be right!
When Silk Floss trees mature, they shed their leaves in September and, all bare, break into a glorious display of gorgeous pink or purple five-petaled flowers. The flowers are followed by pear-shaped capsules filled with seeds embedded in silky white floss. The floss, or Kapok, extracted from the pods is a cotton-like substance with smooth fibers – too smooth for textile thread – that's used to stuff life preservers, saddles, cushions and mattresses. The primary use is for life preservers as the floss can support 30 times its own weight in water!
Ceiba pentandra
Biscayne Park, FL
www.susanfordcollins.com
Tags: Ceiba Silk Floss tree Kapok pod lifepreserver fluffy drunken tree Biscayne Park, Florida
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A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called sails or blades, by tradition specifically to mill grain (gristmills), but in some parts of the English-speaking world the term has also been extended to encompass windpumps, wind turbines, and other applications. The term wind engine is also sometimes used to describe such devices.
www.ebparks.org/parks/venues/little-farm
The Little Farm, Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley, CA
www.susanfordcollins.com
Tags: windmill The Little Farm sky pump water farm Susan Ford Collins Oakland Tilden Tilden Regional Park Berkeley
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My career has taken me in many creative directions! Stoneware is one of them.
I owned a gallery in Jenkintown, PA and filled it with my stoneware vases and dishes. My weavings and macrames. I am also an interior designer.
Just other layers of me that I now bring into my photography.
See my set, Earth to Stoneware.
Tags: stoneware ceramic The Shoe Man and the Lady Susan Ford Collins glazed stoneware stained stoneware scored stoneware high fire ceramic Earth to Stoneware clay texture clay band clay handle clay strap
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Tyler House
www.susanfordcollins.com
Tags: Smith College sculpture Lyman plant house houses Tyler House campus Northampton
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Female Graphium antheus, Large Striped Swordtail
Tags: Graphium antheus Larger Striped Swordtail Wings of the Tropics Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden Fairchild Garden Large Stripe Swordtail
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