Darlingtonia californica 'Mountain Plateau' Curry Co, OR
Mar 17, 2023 14:46:33 GMT -5
sunbelle, hcarlton, and 10 more like this
Post by meizzwang on Mar 17, 2023 14:46:33 GMT -5
Here's another "new" site, at least for me that was recently discovered last year in 2022. In terms of vehicle access, this is the most remote site I've visited so far: there is no road access for many square miles, and the site is located a few miles from the nearest dirt road. We're not talking about a walk in the park, we're talking about roughing it through thick shrubs, big boulders, and very steep terrain.
This hike was a bit sketchy because it was 92F during the day and I thought bringing a liter of water would be sufficient, but it wasn't even close to enough! I'm not sure if you've ever experienced extreme thirst, but that was the first time that I've ever gone through that, and dehydration in the middle of the wilderness is super dangerous. I considered drinking some of the water from the seeps, but there was this thick algae growing in it, lots of organic oils floating on the top, and it looked super sketchy, so instead I rationed my water and actually made it out without getting dangerously dehydrated! I'd take a little sip every 30 minutes and only a small sip: it never quenched the thirst and I stopped sweating, but my body never got to the point of shutting down or telling me I was in trouble. You literally have to hike up and down a massive mountain range plus some to get to this spot, the whole time it was physically intensive and round trip, it was about a 5 hour hike. I trained pretty hard before going on this hike, not something you want to do out of shape!
The trails must have been made many decades ago, maybe even longer because there are trees and shrubs growing in them! This makes it especially difficult to navigate because you can't reliably follow the trail, it "disappears!" It starts off looking like a trail, but because much of it has washed away from rains and landslides, it's hard to tell what is a wash and what is trail! It's such a maze out there so I had to do the old tie a flag on the trees as I walked so I would know how to get back: everything looks different on the way back!
Finding this site makes you realize there are for sure many more out there, but they're not everywhere, and given the size of the landscape, these specific habitats are a bit scarce. also, given the steep, mountainous terrain, there is probably even more to the site that I realized and a big chunk of it probably went unexplored! When you are on the ground searching, it's much harder to find these places than you think!
Anyways, the site was super unique: it plateaued near the top of a mountain range, and gently sloped down for a few hundred meters, which created an enormous habitat for darlingtonia to grow in. The population was absolutely stunning in size!
These genetics are probably one of the most uniqiue that I've ever seen. There are quite a few populations that produce yellow traps as they age, but this is the first time that I've seen newly open traps that were lemon yellow right when they opened up! This suggests the trait may be more genetic based than environmentally induced.
Darlingtonia californica Mountain Plateau, Curry Co, OR, 2022:
Looking up the fen, this is screen saver material!
It's difficult to comprehend the size of this fen, it's absolutely enormous and loaded with plants!
To be continued with closer shots of the plants and more in depth discussions about the genetics at this site!
This hike was a bit sketchy because it was 92F during the day and I thought bringing a liter of water would be sufficient, but it wasn't even close to enough! I'm not sure if you've ever experienced extreme thirst, but that was the first time that I've ever gone through that, and dehydration in the middle of the wilderness is super dangerous. I considered drinking some of the water from the seeps, but there was this thick algae growing in it, lots of organic oils floating on the top, and it looked super sketchy, so instead I rationed my water and actually made it out without getting dangerously dehydrated! I'd take a little sip every 30 minutes and only a small sip: it never quenched the thirst and I stopped sweating, but my body never got to the point of shutting down or telling me I was in trouble. You literally have to hike up and down a massive mountain range plus some to get to this spot, the whole time it was physically intensive and round trip, it was about a 5 hour hike. I trained pretty hard before going on this hike, not something you want to do out of shape!
The trails must have been made many decades ago, maybe even longer because there are trees and shrubs growing in them! This makes it especially difficult to navigate because you can't reliably follow the trail, it "disappears!" It starts off looking like a trail, but because much of it has washed away from rains and landslides, it's hard to tell what is a wash and what is trail! It's such a maze out there so I had to do the old tie a flag on the trees as I walked so I would know how to get back: everything looks different on the way back!
Finding this site makes you realize there are for sure many more out there, but they're not everywhere, and given the size of the landscape, these specific habitats are a bit scarce. also, given the steep, mountainous terrain, there is probably even more to the site that I realized and a big chunk of it probably went unexplored! When you are on the ground searching, it's much harder to find these places than you think!
Anyways, the site was super unique: it plateaued near the top of a mountain range, and gently sloped down for a few hundred meters, which created an enormous habitat for darlingtonia to grow in. The population was absolutely stunning in size!
These genetics are probably one of the most uniqiue that I've ever seen. There are quite a few populations that produce yellow traps as they age, but this is the first time that I've seen newly open traps that were lemon yellow right when they opened up! This suggests the trait may be more genetic based than environmentally induced.
Darlingtonia californica Mountain Plateau, Curry Co, OR, 2022:
Looking up the fen, this is screen saver material!
It's difficult to comprehend the size of this fen, it's absolutely enormous and loaded with plants!
To be continued with closer shots of the plants and more in depth discussions about the genetics at this site!