Grand Case and the Cherry Bush
On yet another hot and sticky day I went on a short walk in the Grand Case area. My first stop was the bridge, where the canal to the airport salt pond had been opened recently. Several royal terns were happily fishing there and I was happy to stop and take a few photos of them.
As I continued through town I ran into a couple friends, one of which pointed out a cherry bush on the hill and asked me to bring some back if I went up that way. A cherry bush is actually a cashew tree, and the cashews themselves actually hang from the bottom of what looks like a vaguely heart-shaped fruit. Actually, apparently the cashew itself is the fruit, and the fruit-like part is a pseudo-fruit. Unprepared, the cashew is actually poisonous, but the pseudo-fruit is sweet and delicious. The tree itself was popular with a particular cerambycid (longhorn) beetle, Trachyderes succinctus and what seems to be a braconid wasp. There were also a number of fruit flies and small beetles eating the fallen fruit.
I stopped to take a couple photos of Grand Case before returning with my cherry fruit, sweaty but well-rewarded.
