Miami's Underline Park

The Underline is an impressive
& well-used urban park located
under the Metro Rail in Miami.

Taking its inspiration from the High Line Park in New York City and The Lurie Garden in Chicago, The Friends of The Underline non-profit organization formed in 2013. The Underline is basically a multi-use path with parks, recreational spaces, playgrounds, plantings, and stormwater infrastructure. It's expected to extend to its full 10-mile distance by 2026.

These gardens feature untrimmed native plants that attract and feed insects and birds. This is different than traditional formal gardens where everything is tightly trimmed and exotic plants are chosen for their beauty and because they are not favored by the local insects. This style is left over from British and European upper class expectations where those who owned grand houses and estates favored those highly maintained gardens to show how wealthy they were.

Morning glories: So much more than just pretty flowers

The iconic tall or common morning glory
(I. purpurea) is a garden favorite around the world.

Iconic garden morning glories

When most people think of morning glories, it's the tall or common morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea) that they envision. It's a vine native to Mexico, Central and South America, but its beautiful blossoms and vigorous growth even in poor conditions have made it a garden favorite around the world. There are hundreds of named cultivars.

Each delicate flower lasts only one day and they look best in the morning when they first open; hence the name "morning glory."

How palms work

A cabbage palm tree (Sabal palmetto) silhouetted
by a sunrise on the St. Johns River.

Palms decorate tropical and subtropical regions of the World

Palms are monocots. Angiosperms or true flowering plants are divided into two major groups—monocots and dicots, which have various differences, but are named for the number of seed leaves or cotyledons they have. 

Monocots also include grasses, orchids, gingers, bananas, and bamboo. Also, most of the bulbs including onions, garlic, lilies, tulips, and more, but probably most important characteristic for our discussion on palms, there is no real wood with annual rings. The vascular tissue (the phloem and xylem) in monocots is arranged in bundles throughout the stem. In a dicot, they occur in the cambium layer just under or inside the bark around the plant stem. It is the new set of xylem and phloem cells that are produced each year which form the annual rings that produce the wood in true trees.