Field of Science

Rainforest AM and a fig

It's 8 AM, on one hand it seems early, but it's not.  The rainforest day shift began their activities about 3 hrs ago at first light, when you first can perceive that it's gray not black out there.  Everyone is done with breakfast; everyone has gotten going on their research or other activities, and TPP is just waiting to see if anyone needs any help before he too heads out onto the trails to find some trees.  The morning
mist has already burned away and the sky is blue, but there was no rain last night and today promises to be quite hot.  Our students are showing a lot of effort and a very sound work ethic.  They want to accomplish something in a short period of time whether or not nature cooperates. 
Today's image is a fig (Ficus)in fruit that are nearly ripe.  These figs are about the size of a marble and a very large number of species loves them.  They actually don't taste too bad.  Figs have a complicated reproductive interaction with fig wasps, tiny wasps that both pollinate and reproduce in the figs.  Best if you don't think about the implications of this when you eat your next fig.  However this fig will be a great place to watch for birds.  You might get to see 30-40 species in such a fig in just an hour or two if you get up early enough, or sit where you can watch the fig and still have your coffee. 

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