Martin Lake swamp tour

Last week we went on a swamp boat tour on Martin Lake near Lafayette, Louisiana. Many of these tours are cheesy tourist traps, but in this case our guide knew a lot about the ecology and botany of the area, so it was really neat.

Here are a few selected pictures, but there are more on my flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/inyo395/




Baldcypress trees. These trees, which are related to redwoods and sequoias, can survive soils that are saturated for much of the year. In this particular lake, a levee was created that interrupted the occasional drying up of this area. The trees can survive having their bases submerged indefinitely - but will not reproduce, nor will they grow very much (except their bases expanding) unless the water dries up around them. Thankfully they live hundreds of years so it will be a long time before these trees die off.


A huge spider. There are a LOT of big spiders in the swamps.




Gators


Storm clouds and birds (the birds might be too tiny to see in this picture)


American lotus