Hillside Bog, North Hancock County, MS
May 17, 2014 22:52:27 GMT -5
calen, DirtyDivisions, and 3 more like this
Post by rhizomatous on May 17, 2014 22:52:27 GMT -5
5/17/2014
Today I went on a field trip to one of the natural areas of Mississippi State University's Crosby Arboretum. Hillside Bog is a fascinating and beautiful site in northern Hancock County, MS. If you are ever in the area, you should really visit the Crosby Arboretum and also see if they are running any tours.
Hillside Bog is a really neat place because the bog is at the bottom of a hill where the land levels out. The tour guides said that when it rains on the site, water percolates through the soil until it hits a layer of clay, at which point it follows that layer down the hill to the more boggy area.
Descriptions for pictures in this thread will be above the pictures.
Here's the entrance. A lot of more upland species. The site exclusively or nearly exclusively contains longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) as its only pine species.
And here's a stand of longleaf in a more upland part of the site:
And another picture of the site leading to the bog.
Honestly, the changes in elevation seemed pretty subtle to me, but there was a clear line of gallberry (Ilex glabra) right at the edge of the pitcher plant bog where the site became much wetter.
The bog:
As with all other sites in the western part of South Mississippi, the only Sarracenia you should expect are S. alata and S. psittacina. I didn't really get too many shots of individual plants. The tour was great, but there was just so much happening! I usually wanted to listen more than take pictures. The main tour guide was a botanist for the state of Mississippi, but others, including the person in charge of maintaining and burning the site and the owner of several prairie seeded fields nearby provided some valuable information as well.
Anyway, here are some individual Sarracenia shots. As is usual, the S. psittacina was buried underneath the grasses, so most shots are just flowers. Most of the S. alata seemed to be var. alata, though there were a few var. cuprea and maybe others. I suspect the other varieties will become more prominent as the growing season progresses.
I thought this was kind of neat. The pitcher on the right was growing into the pitcher on the left. When I separated them, I noticed the one on the right had an abbreviated hood. I'm guessing the left pitcher was there first and the new growth of the right pitcher was just damaged as it grew into the one on the left.
Something really interesting to me about this site is that some of the only trees in the bog area were pond cypress (Taxodium ascendens). The tour guides said that a pond cypress on the site was cored and aged at 200 years old!
Here's a cypress knee, but a sundew and a bladderwort snuck into the photo too. The trail around the site was really mucky and slick, and the occasional cypress knee didn't help walking around at all.
Another knee. See all of the tadpoles?
Here are some last pictures of the site. I also managed to get some pictures of some of the orchids in bloom on the site, but I think I'm just going make a separate thread later this week.
Today I went on a field trip to one of the natural areas of Mississippi State University's Crosby Arboretum. Hillside Bog is a fascinating and beautiful site in northern Hancock County, MS. If you are ever in the area, you should really visit the Crosby Arboretum and also see if they are running any tours.
Hillside Bog is a really neat place because the bog is at the bottom of a hill where the land levels out. The tour guides said that when it rains on the site, water percolates through the soil until it hits a layer of clay, at which point it follows that layer down the hill to the more boggy area.
Descriptions for pictures in this thread will be above the pictures.
Here's the entrance. A lot of more upland species. The site exclusively or nearly exclusively contains longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) as its only pine species.
And here's a stand of longleaf in a more upland part of the site:
And another picture of the site leading to the bog.
Honestly, the changes in elevation seemed pretty subtle to me, but there was a clear line of gallberry (Ilex glabra) right at the edge of the pitcher plant bog where the site became much wetter.
The bog:
As with all other sites in the western part of South Mississippi, the only Sarracenia you should expect are S. alata and S. psittacina. I didn't really get too many shots of individual plants. The tour was great, but there was just so much happening! I usually wanted to listen more than take pictures. The main tour guide was a botanist for the state of Mississippi, but others, including the person in charge of maintaining and burning the site and the owner of several prairie seeded fields nearby provided some valuable information as well.
Anyway, here are some individual Sarracenia shots. As is usual, the S. psittacina was buried underneath the grasses, so most shots are just flowers. Most of the S. alata seemed to be var. alata, though there were a few var. cuprea and maybe others. I suspect the other varieties will become more prominent as the growing season progresses.
I thought this was kind of neat. The pitcher on the right was growing into the pitcher on the left. When I separated them, I noticed the one on the right had an abbreviated hood. I'm guessing the left pitcher was there first and the new growth of the right pitcher was just damaged as it grew into the one on the left.
Something really interesting to me about this site is that some of the only trees in the bog area were pond cypress (Taxodium ascendens). The tour guides said that a pond cypress on the site was cored and aged at 200 years old!
Here's a cypress knee, but a sundew and a bladderwort snuck into the photo too. The trail around the site was really mucky and slick, and the occasional cypress knee didn't help walking around at all.
Another knee. See all of the tadpoles?
Here are some last pictures of the site. I also managed to get some pictures of some of the orchids in bloom on the site, but I think I'm just going make a separate thread later this week.