Drosera anglica in Alakai Swamp, Hawaii
May 2, 2017 0:44:34 GMT -5
meizzwang, yosemite, and 10 more like this
Post by calen on May 2, 2017 0:44:34 GMT -5
Last week my girlfriend and I went to Kauai for a whole week! Sun, warm water, mai tais, and yes, carnivorous plants! On Monday we had a chance to scope out a unique CP habitat. The Alakai Swamp is a really amazing complex of fens perched on a lava plateau just below Mt. Waialeale. The area is one of the wettest on earth, receiving a ridiculous, absurd, gratuitous 9.7 meters of rain per year. That much rain combined with a hardpan lava layer creates a water desert effect where soils have a hard time forming and any free nutrients are immediately washed away. At an altitude of 5000 feet, the climate is cool and almost always cloudy. A spectacular location in its own right, Alakai swamp is also home to the only known tropical population of the boreal species Drosera anglica. It's a rad thing that these sundews do, since two other temperate species have been found in tropical environments: D. intermedia in Latin America and D. rotundifolia growing with Nepenthes in mountain bogs in the Philippines and Papua New Guinea. These varieties do not tolerate freezing or form winter hibernacula, and our best guess is that birds brought the seeds on their feet from temperate bogs thousands of kilometers away.
The hike is about 8 miles round-trip through stunted mossy montane forest, with much of the trail on elevated boardwalks to protect the sensitive terrain. Somehow we visited on a completely sunny day. The sun was strong and the humidity surprisingly low and the trees were only maybe 20-25 feet tall. Photos taken 4/24/2017.
The original boardwalk is wood, and is sketch af due to rot. These steps were a real doozy even when relatively dry.
As you approach the fens the vegetation becomes even more stunted and I kept thinking to myself that if this were Borneo there would totally be Nepenthes everywhere!
Eventually the conditions become too harsh for any sort of tall growth, and the fens take over:
There are many shallow pools and the soil was a black peaty muck. There was no sphagnum to be found, which surprised me a bit.
And of course, in the worst spot imaginable, where all the other plants were hating life, the sundews were thriving.
You can see them turning the ground red around the edge of on of the ponds (note the mud cracks in the peat - despite all the rain, this habitat can occasionally get dryish it would seem):
Unfortunately the low humidity had the plants looking less dewy than they probably would on a misty day. Overall the plants were fairly small in stature, perhaps 3 inches or less.
A few more habitat shots. The land was never flat, with grassy seepage meadows draining to ponds, clumps of stunted shrubs clinging to the higher hummocks. If someone planted Heliamphora here I am certain they would thrive (don't do it though!).
Stunted veg close-up
The trail ends at a sheer cliff that forms the edge of the plateau and you get this *super crappy* view out to the north and east. The next day we rocked some body surfing at the white sand beach in the distance - yeah!
The hike is about 8 miles round-trip through stunted mossy montane forest, with much of the trail on elevated boardwalks to protect the sensitive terrain. Somehow we visited on a completely sunny day. The sun was strong and the humidity surprisingly low and the trees were only maybe 20-25 feet tall. Photos taken 4/24/2017.
The original boardwalk is wood, and is sketch af due to rot. These steps were a real doozy even when relatively dry.
As you approach the fens the vegetation becomes even more stunted and I kept thinking to myself that if this were Borneo there would totally be Nepenthes everywhere!
Eventually the conditions become too harsh for any sort of tall growth, and the fens take over:
There are many shallow pools and the soil was a black peaty muck. There was no sphagnum to be found, which surprised me a bit.
And of course, in the worst spot imaginable, where all the other plants were hating life, the sundews were thriving.
You can see them turning the ground red around the edge of on of the ponds (note the mud cracks in the peat - despite all the rain, this habitat can occasionally get dryish it would seem):
Unfortunately the low humidity had the plants looking less dewy than they probably would on a misty day. Overall the plants were fairly small in stature, perhaps 3 inches or less.
A few more habitat shots. The land was never flat, with grassy seepage meadows draining to ponds, clumps of stunted shrubs clinging to the higher hummocks. If someone planted Heliamphora here I am certain they would thrive (don't do it though!).
Stunted veg close-up
The trail ends at a sheer cliff that forms the edge of the plateau and you get this *super crappy* view out to the north and east. The next day we rocked some body surfing at the white sand beach in the distance - yeah!