Plants In Profile #28

PLANTS IN PROFILE #28

FIREBUSH (Hamelia patens)
The Mound House is home to a wide variety of plants and trees.   Firebush, a native species of Florida, is one of the more colorful and interesting shrubs and is located right outside our office door.  Blossoming all year long with bright red and showy flowers, these plants are often featured in tropical landscaping.  The fruit of this shrub is a juicy red berry that is edible, but unremarkable in flavor.  Beyond enhancing the landscape with color, firebush serves as a host plant to attract butterflies and migratory hummingbirds.  While beneficial to wildlife, firebush has also been selected for the landscape at Mound House because of its medicinal and industrial uses.  Historically, firebush was utilized by Native Americans to treat skin problems such as burns, insect bites and rashes.   Recent research into the medicinal value of firebush has revealed that extracts from this plant showed analgesic and anti- inflammatory uses.  In addition, tannins from this plant are used in several industrial applications as well.  

Plants In Profile #27

PLANTS IN PROFILE # 27

WILD COTTON ( Gossyplum hirsutum)

The newest addition to the Mound House botanical collection is a native plant often found on ancient shell middens such as ours here at Mound House. In the wild, growing amongst the coastal hammocks and thickets, wild cotton grows as a shrub and can reach heights of 6 to 12 feet living for several years. The native range of wild cotton includes southern Florida, Mexico, northern South America , Central America and the West  Indies. People have been cultivating and using cotton for over two thousand years, spinning the fibers of the cotton bolls into fabric and string. Today, modern varieties of cotton are the most widely used natural fiber in the world and the seeds of cotton are used in the production of oils and animal food. In herbal medicine, cotton seed and roots have been used to treat asthma , dysentery and cancer and is occasionally planted as an ornamental. Interestingly, in Florida, a permit is required  from the State to grow wild cotton, even though it is listed as an endangered plant. Oddly, this plant achieved its endangered status due to extensive eradication efforts in the 1930s which nearly obliterated wild cotton from the Florida. Wild cotton was eradicated in an effort to prevent the spread of boll weevils from wild sources into cultivated crops. Even though there is no cultivated cotton crop within several hundred miles of the Mound House and our plants, the Florida Department of Agriculture still requires a permit to grow cotton and monitors the site with insect traps to detect the potential presence of the boll weevil.       

 

THE CUBAN FISHERFOLK OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

During the seventeenth, eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth centuries, there was an
extensive and lucrative fishing industry between Cuba and the coast of Southwest Florida
which included the waters of Estero Bay and our own Mound House site. Semi-permanent
seasonal fishing camps or "ranchos" were established along the coast, many of which
occupied the abandoned shell mounds of the Calusa . The abundance and accessibility of
this tremendous shallow water fishery that had enabled the Calusa to establish a vast and sophisticated kingdom, now supported a new group of people, the Cuban fisherfolk. The protected back bays and expansive sea grass flats of our area lent themselves to the simple
fishing technology of the day. Using handmade woven nets and shallow draft sailboats,
these Cuban fishermen harvested up to two million pounds of fish a year from our waters.
Without refrigeration, fish had to be smoked ,or dried and salted before being packed for
shipment to market.

For centuries, South Florida was more closely tied to Havana than to any other port or
capitol in North America. It is roughly one hundred miles by water from Estero Island
to Key West, and another 90 miles to Havana. As a Spanish possession, "La Florida"
had no gold or silver for the conquistadors, but Florida is rich in natural resources, and
in the long run provided many colonial benefits to Spain.

With the ascendancy of Spanish influence in the western hemisphere, Havana became
a populous port city and soon the  productive fishing grounds along the north coast of
Cuba had become depleted. Feeding the growing colony of Cuba was a lucrative enterprise
for the commercial fishing industries of the day. The Spanish Crown leased exclusive
fishing rights to Cuban businessmen who set up seasonal, and sometimes permanent,
ranchos upon the old Calusa shell mounds. In the fall, fishermen would target species
such as redfish ,snapper, trout, pompano ,and particularly the mullet which begin to
fatten up in the fall in preparation for the winter spawn in which vast schools of mullet
assemble in the tidal creeks  and back bays of our estuaries, making them  accessible to the
Cuban nets. As these fish were harvested,they were smoked or dried upon racks, salted and
packed for shipment to Cuba. Around March, at the end of the fishing season, these fishermen
would then sail to the Bahamas to harvest salt collected from seawater evaporation pools. 
This salt was then brought back to the fishing ranchos in preparation for another season.
As trade became more established, many Cuban fishermen ended up marrying local Indian
women. Historians and other observers of the day referred to the descendants of these people
as "Spanish Indians". These families often  joined the Catholic church and sent their children
back to Cuba for education.

For 200 years Cuban fishing ranchos operated along the coast of Southwest Florida, many
of them, like the Mound House site, established atop ancient Calusa mounds .Ultimately,
Spain ceded control of Florida to the United States in 1821, and in 1835 the Second Seminole
War ended the era of Cuban fishing ranchos in Florida as the United sought to end foreign
settlement of its new territory.

           

Jack DeLysle and Rum smuggling

While the Mound House has had a variety of interesting resdients, one of the most colorful was a British promoter named Jack DeLysle. DeLysle came to Southwest Florida amid charges of smuggling rum from Cuba to the United States during the alcohol free era of Prohibition. The following narrative describes the event and is pulled from newspaper accounts from the time.

Jack DeLysle in front of a Ft. Myers home

THE INCIDENT

The Uralia, a schooner containing a ship load of whiskey was wrecked on a sand bar below Naples during heavy northeast gale Saturday, the fifteenth of January 1921. Three days before the ship had set anchor off the coast of Naples and when the storm hit the crew attempted to secure the boat in Gordon’s Pass and became grounded on a sand bar. A large number of cases of alcohol washed ashore and were then salvaged and were either hidden in mangroves or stolen and changed hands.  The vessel originated in Mobile several weeks before the incident under the name Frank M. and sailed under an American flag. It then sailed to Tampa, Naples, and Key West before it anchored in Havana. It was here that the boat was loaded with alcohol and changed its name to Uralia and its flag to British. Its destination was meant to be Pensacola but the Uralia was forced to drop anchor off of Fort Myers due to the storm.

THE CREW

The crew originally consisted of Jack and John Delyse, Captain Brindley L. Coats, a Spaniard, and a black deck hand named Cleveland Bodden or Bedden. Jack DeLysle, had previously served in World War I as a captain in the air service and “acted as one of the official air photographers for the British government.” DeLysle met his wife and two year old son in Havana and sailed back to Fort Myers with his family on a separate ship. At the time of the shipwreck DeLysle and his family were living in a suite at a Naples hotel and “apparently caring little for expense. Among the incidentals added to the furnishings of the suite was a handsome piano.” When police arrived at the shipwreck, the crew consisted of John Delysle, the Spaniard, and Cleveland, John claimed that he was merely the engineer and that the captain had fled the ship.

THE INVESTIGATION

Major William, federal prohibition enforcement officer, arrived in Fort Myers from Tampa and worked alongside Sheriff Frank B. Tippins and Officer John Barnhill to investigate the illegal alcohol aboard the ship. They estimated that originally the Uralia held close to 995 cases. The cases were labeled “Soap” and marked in blue chalk with the number “12.” While most of these cases disappeared, the officials were able to find a couple of cases labeled “Country Club” whiskey. The alcohol in these branded boxes appeared to have originated from New Hope Kentucky before Prohibition was enacted, at that time it was shipped out of the country to Cuba. The officers stated that the liquor is a very poor grade, at least the bottles discovered by them. The investigators discovereed Cleveland’s diary and found that he was employed by Captain Coats three months prior to the incident; he and the captain met the DeLysles in Mobile Alabama and chartered them for this trip. They then sailed to St. Andrews Bay and then down to Tampa where the DeLysles came aboard. It appears that on the cruise down south between Key West and Cuba Capt. Coats and DeLysle had a quarrel “over whether they should bring back with them a load of Chinamen or a load of booze, the former claiming it was more profitable to smuggle in Chinamen to the United State.” Once they arrived in Havana Coats registered the boat as the Uralia under Cleveland’s name since he was a British subject.

THE TRIAL

The DeLysle brothers were taken to Tampa for a trial before Walter O. Sheppard, the United States Commissioner. The two brothers were represented by their attorney R.A. Henderson. Cleveland was called as a witness during the trial as was Will Tomlinson and J.O. Whidden.

Both brothers were declared innocent after it was found that a number of the witnesses had been caught with liquor and one of them at least had been convicted several times previously for illegal sale of liquor. The testimony of one man, that he purchased illegal liquor from Jack DeLysle, was thrown out after several witnesses proved that Jack DeLysle was not in Fort Myers on the day the witness said, nor for two days prior to that time.  The jury acquitted the DeLysle brothers after only ten minutes of deliberation and with not a single dissenting vote. 

CREATURE FEATURE #25 - American Oystercatcher

 AMERICAN OYSTERCATCHER (Haematopus palliatus) 

A wide variety of shorebirds inhabit the Florida coastline, each filling a unique ecological niche between land and sea. And of course, that is where human encroachment is at  its greatest along the Gulf Coast. As such, many of these species are listed as threatened or endangered, or, as in the case of the American Oystercatcher, listed as a “Species of Special Concern” by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). The FWC estimates that there are only about 1,000 of these individuals living in the State. But little is known about the movement, migration, or the population of these birds.

 The Oystercatcher, with their dark brown back and white underside and a bright red bill, is one of the largest and heaviest of our shorebirds. In flight, a diagonal white stripe on each wing forms a “V”pattern.

These birds need extensive sandbars and mudflats in which to forage and nest. They are very sensitive to human disturbance and require remote locations to thrive, which is very hard to find on the coast of Florida. Oystercatchers usually nest in shallow depressions scraped out of sand and surrounded by water.This makes them subject to predators such as raccoons, foxes, dogs, and cats.

 According to the FWC, Oystercatchers get their name for their habit of snatching oysters from slightly open shells. They use their powerful bills to open mollusks and sort through shells on the beach in search of food.

      

PLANTS IN PROFILE #26 - THRYALLIS (Galphimia glauca)

Summer rains bring back a vibrant and colorful element to the vegetation at Mound House. Many species who wait out the dry weather of late spring return more robust and vigorous than ever. In the scientific and medicinal gardens portion of our site, be sure to check out the beautiful golden flowers of the thryallis, in full bloom just in time for summer.

A medium sized, evergreen shrub, these hardy low maintenance plants have become popular in Florida as landscaping hedges and for adding color to lawns.

A native of the tropical regions of southern Mexico and Central America, thryallis does well here on Estero Island and can tolerate the sometimes tough conditions that come with growing on a 2,000 year old shell mound. 

Traditionally, thryallis is used to treat asthma and allergies in Latin America, and is even employed in the treatment of mental disorders.     

CREATURE FEATURE #25 - American Avocet

AMERICAN AVOCET (Recurvirostra Americana)

This remarkable wading bird is a migratory resident of Estero Island, but occasionally  turns up on our beaches in its magnificent breeding season plumage. Usually found in grey and black plumage, the striking coloration and elegant profile of the American Avocet stands out among our shorebirds. Standing on the longest of legs they feed on invertebrates with wide sweeps of their delicate upturned bill. When nesting, the Avocet is remarkably aggressive towards predators, sometimes, physically striking crows and hawks. American Avocets may lay eggs in their own nests or use the nest of other shore birds. This also occurs with other species of shorebirds who leave their own eggs to be raised by Avocets.  The young can leave the nest after only one day, feeding, walking and even diving on their own.

The birds shown in these photographs were observed feeding in the surf on the south end of Estero Island.

(Photos courtesy of Ellen Fernandez)