Highway 35B Study Area
My specialty is cactus and succulents but as I look for them I am always encountering other things and iNat seems to be a great way of identifying these plants ansd animals. Hwy 35B connects the Panam at the (unmarked) community of Santa Adelaide to the Miraflor Reserve and then goes to the newly paved road between Condegs and Yali.
My study area is from the Panam to the Esteli river 5.5 km to the east. This east end is called La Naranja but there is another community of the same name elsewhere in Miraflor so I use the river as my landmark.
I have walked both sides of the road, camera in hand, in the late rainy season and found quite a few species of plants and animals. In what is nominally dry forest I found a lot of micro ecosystems including wetlands that were created by stock pounds that provide all-year water. The roadside is a disturbed habitat with quite a variety of plants. I suspect that 50 years ago this was all mixed broad leaf forest and the cactus, trees, scrub, and cacti are all jockying to survive. It seems the scrub brush is winning.
I think I will leave it be until the seasonal brush dies off. Maybe late January will be a good time to walk it again. Currently, most of the small cactus and peperomias are hidden.
