danaleeling

With all due thanks to the maintenance crew up front, the area across the road from the campus is, at present, providing an excellent laboratory for secondary succession. Work done last term on leveling the terrain there provided bare soil of poor quality. One of the early arrivals was Nostoc, a surface dwelling cyanobacteria. Other small grasses and herbs also moved in quickly to the open terrain. The textbook mentioned lycophytes as being early colonizers of infertile open ground, and indeed Lycopodiella cernua is a first arrival in this area, a pioneer plant. Another early arrival is the sun loving fern Dicranopteris linearis Along with the lycophytes, ferns, and grasses, trees are also quick to exploit this open terrain, especially the nitrogen fixing tree Falcataria moluccana. Morinda citrifolia is also quick to move into open spaces. Falcataria moluccana quickly forms a lightweight canopy which has the effect of reducing the growth of Ischaemum polys...