"Ah, you may sit under them, yes. They cast a good shadow, cold as well-water; but that's the trouble, they tempt you to sleep. And you must never, for any reason, sleep beneath a cypress.' He paused, stroked his moustache, waited for me to ask why, and then went on: 'Why? Why? Because if you did you would be changed when you woke. Yes, the black cypresses, they are dangerous. While you sleep, their roots grow into your brains and steal them, and when you wake up you are mad, head as empty as a whistle.' I asked whether it was only the cypress that could do that or did it apply to other trees. 'No, only the cypress,' said the old man, peering up fiercely at the trees above me as though to see whether they were listening; 'only the cypress is the thief of intelligence. So be warned, little lord, and don't sleep here.”
―
Gerald Durrell,
My Family and Other Animals
....and in the fall? Beautiful, I tell ya....just beautimous!! Every color of the autumn rainbow shows itself on the leaves of the lacy cypress tree. In a matter of days, it might change its colors from summer green to late fall red/orange. Group them together and the painting is magnificent....
the green carpet under these trees?? Salvinia, There is actually bayou water beneath the green.
Salvinia is a small free-floating plant that grows in clusters and develops into dense, floating mats or colonies in quiet water, undisturbed by wave action. Giant salvinia can double in size in 4 to 10 days under good conditions.
If salvinia completely covers the surface of a pond it will cause dissolved oxygen depletions and fish kills. These colonies will also eliminate submerged plants by blocking sunlight penetration. Salvinias have no known direct food value to wildlife and is considered an exotic and highly undesirable species. It is not good. It literally chokes out the oxygen in the water and many measures have been put in place around here to eliminate it.
But a drive across the bridge, over the bayou in the fall, is always a breathtaking sight...
and one more thing about those bayous??
Beware Alabama Crimson Tide.....you are about to enter Death Valley on Saturday night.
Be afraid. Be very very afraid.
