~14-
Recovery of the plants was rapid.
on the third day.
length,
On the
were observed on
Heavy rains occurred
eighth day green buds,
the stems of
schmidia (Fig. 5a) plants.
1-3 mm in
Scaevola and Messer-
On the thirty-fifth day the shoot
leaves were 7 to 15 cm long,
covering much of the old stems
(Fig. 5b) and giving the plants a green and healthy appearance.
By this time many of the other plants had formed new leaves and
three species
(Portulaca, Triumfetta, and Messerschmidia) had
produced new flowers and fruits.
scorched appearance;
The island now had lost its
from the air it looked green rather than
brown as it had one month earlier.
In August,
three months after the detonation,
were growing well
the plants
(Fig. 6) and some species, such as Boerhaavia
had produced new flowers.
The leaves of most of the species
had grown to maximum size,
and the branches had grown almost to
the pre-Nectar dimensions.
This was not the case with the
Guettarda and Lepturus plants, which recovered more slowly than
the other species.
1216)
The new growth on the Guettarda plant
(No.
consisted of ten small leaves which originated from a new
shoot 18 cm tall at the base of the old plant; the Lepturus
plant
(No.
1410) was a mat of dead tops with some new growth
forming at the periphery.