Post by meizzwang on Sept 25, 2013 0:03:23 GMT -5
The parrot pitcher plant is ubiquitous, and from what I can remember, it's found in abundance at most of the sites we visited. Consequently, the diversity in shapes, forms, and sizes is enormous as you go from one site to the next, but for the most part, you have to look carefully to see the differences. Since the plants are low to the ground, most are very hidden, and you'll have no idea they're even there. You could walk past 10,000 plants and not even know it! They grew everywhere: wet areas, slightly dry areas, in dense grass, in open, disturbed creekbeds...if it was moist enough, they'd probably be there. I did observe that plants seemed to grow a bit bigger in the "boggier" areas, but that wasn't always the case. There were also some very wet areas where they plants were average sized.
The famous "flava atropurpurea" site in Okaloosa Co, FL has quite a few S. psittacinas, and in some places, the population was so dense, it was almost unbelievable! There were hundreds of plants packed tightly like sardines in little spring fed "creeks" and despite being mature sized plants (ie. they had flowers), they were relatively small! The whole mature, flowering sized plant could fit in the palm of your hand!
This site had very typical looking plants, and in this post, we'll explore all the microhabitats within the bog. Other sites had some more impressive looking clones, so stay tuned for future posts!
Photos taken 9/7/13 (and maybe some on 9/8/13):
Notice how there are "winged" spring pitchers followed by the late summer/fall pitchers, which are more dense and compact. Why do they form these elongated, round leaf-like petioles in the spring, or what triggers these sort of traps to be formed? In cultivation, I have a plant called "dragon wings" that typically forms ridiculously large etiolated, leaf-like petioles, during the spring and early summer, but this year, they didn't do that at all (they only formed normal pitchers), so I don't have an answer for you yet:
zoomed out a bit:
third shot is a charm:
Not sure how to describe this, but it's a disturbed, "seep" bed I guess? The seep dried out, but was probably a raging river during floods. This opens up the grass and exposed the peaty/sandy substrate, which creates an ideal habitat for S. psittacina
I love these little plants!
Here's a plant growing in a very boggy area-notice how much water is present:
this little population is starting to become overgrown with grass. In general, Most of the plants are heavily shaded despite being in full sun. However, they seem to do best in full sun:
to belabor the point:full sun, but mostly shaded:
There's probably 100 plants here:
Habitat overview with lots of signs that Damon and Axel are nearby:
This sums up a lot in one photo:
Last but not least, an overview shot of the habitat:
The famous "flava atropurpurea" site in Okaloosa Co, FL has quite a few S. psittacinas, and in some places, the population was so dense, it was almost unbelievable! There were hundreds of plants packed tightly like sardines in little spring fed "creeks" and despite being mature sized plants (ie. they had flowers), they were relatively small! The whole mature, flowering sized plant could fit in the palm of your hand!
This site had very typical looking plants, and in this post, we'll explore all the microhabitats within the bog. Other sites had some more impressive looking clones, so stay tuned for future posts!
Photos taken 9/7/13 (and maybe some on 9/8/13):
Notice how there are "winged" spring pitchers followed by the late summer/fall pitchers, which are more dense and compact. Why do they form these elongated, round leaf-like petioles in the spring, or what triggers these sort of traps to be formed? In cultivation, I have a plant called "dragon wings" that typically forms ridiculously large etiolated, leaf-like petioles, during the spring and early summer, but this year, they didn't do that at all (they only formed normal pitchers), so I don't have an answer for you yet:
zoomed out a bit:
third shot is a charm:
Not sure how to describe this, but it's a disturbed, "seep" bed I guess? The seep dried out, but was probably a raging river during floods. This opens up the grass and exposed the peaty/sandy substrate, which creates an ideal habitat for S. psittacina
I love these little plants!
Here's a plant growing in a very boggy area-notice how much water is present:
this little population is starting to become overgrown with grass. In general, Most of the plants are heavily shaded despite being in full sun. However, they seem to do best in full sun:
to belabor the point:full sun, but mostly shaded:
There's probably 100 plants here:
Habitat overview with lots of signs that Damon and Axel are nearby:
This sums up a lot in one photo:
Last but not least, an overview shot of the habitat: