Sarracenia and dewthreads in South GA
Jul 25, 2018 10:41:23 GMT -5
meizzwang, hcarlton, and 13 more like this
Post by acalvin on Jul 25, 2018 10:41:23 GMT -5
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! To start off showing Sarracenia in the wild, I will share the progress of the bog restoration on my family's land. As I mentioned in my introduction, sundews and bladderworts grow wild in some places on the property and Sarracenia minor was naturalized from a now destroyed bog across the street.
These blurry photos from 2005 show the pitcherplants in the bog across from my parents' land. One particular plant (on the left), I call clone C, looks more like a Sarracenia x harperi backrossed with S. minor. My profile pic is a clone that has a red tinge on the petals and a shape suggestive of S. psittacina ancestry.
I don't have a photo of the land now, but it is a big ugly lawn. I did move many of these plants to a wet area on the perimeter of my parents' property - I call this the cane kettle bog, since my family cooks sugarcane syrup nearby. This is a tradition in my family since at least the early 1900s.
S. minor clone C in the cane kettle bog.
The cane kettle bog in the spring.
The Sarracenia here grew there for almost a decade. Unfortunately, the owner of the bordering property was against controlled burns. Even while burning the bog (with permits), the bordering shrubs overgrew and dried the soil. Bayberry are an especially thirsty tree.
Luckily, years earlier my dad dug a pond in the middle of his land. All of a sudden, Drosera proliferated on the sandy banks. Utricularia gibba sprouted in the water, likely brought over by waterfowl. A Habeneria orchid I had last seen in the cane kettle bog over a decade ago sprouted on the edge. Within a year dozens of them surrounded the pond. Many other bog associates began growing on the pond bogs. I introduced some S. minor divisions to these bogs and they have grown very well for the past couple of years.
Drosera capillaris
Drosera brevifolia
Utricularia gibba
Utricularia subulata
S. minor clone 4 in the pond bog.
If you look behind the pond, you can see the longleaf pines. There are patches of native wiregrass groundcover surrounding the trees with healthy mycorrhiza. Occasional Fox Squirrels and Gopher Tortoises visit this area. My goal now is to unite these patches to form a continuous stretch of native groundcover that extends to the pond. This should serve as a buffer that protects the pitcherplants and other wildflowers. A few wet spots within those patches may also be candidates for reintroduction as well. I have had some divisions of a few S. minor clones in cultivation for a while now, and am concentrating on growing those out and getting seed to plant in those candidate areas.
A powerline cuts behind that woodshed in the previous picture (I plan to remove it next time I'm in GA to allow wildflowers to grow). One remaining bog is under the powerlines on the neighboring property. The owner doesn't mind if I use the trails on the lot, so I visit when I can. The pitcherplants are usually beat up. The mowing is not as effective as fire, one large clump is on an ATV trail, and once the owner completely tilled the population to plant a feedplot several years ago. These are some persistent plants. The soil here can be dry, even sampling soil a foot or so down is nearly bone dry some summers. I suspect the resilience is largely due to the health of the longleaf savanna surrounding the population. The in tact ground cover harbors mycorrhiza that store water, defends against rot, and impedes non native plants. The savanna also seems to absorb water more effectively than lawn, which is what the old can kettle bog was surrounded by.
So far, restoring the native groundcover is slow, but rewarding. It involves scraping off a layer of dirt from the pond. The dirt separating the patches allows centipede grass to grow. This centipede interestingly does not compete well with the native groundcover. The places where I have removed the dirt, I have planted wiregrass divisions and seeds collected from the various composites, legumes, gopher apples, running oak, and rare plants like Balduinia, Angelica dentata, and Asclepias. A light mulch of longleaf needles protects them as they begin to grow. So far it has been a success! Wildflowers once declining are now finally expanding. The groundcover is useful to wildlife and humans too. I've counted and successfully propagated over half a dozen species of blueberries, blackberries, PawPaw, and wild passionfruit; all a real treat in the summer.
So here's what I've learned: A bog does not exist in vacuum. Even a wet area on the property could not sustain pitcherplants longterm when the health of the surrounding ecosystems is declining. With that, I have prioritized restoring the native groundcover of the more xeric pinelands in the back of the property and have in the process come to enjoy the diversity that I once overlooked. With a restored longleaf savanna, the pondside bogs are more protected from invasive species, have more beneficial mycorrhiza, and have more regular water.
The last point I've learned is that there is always hope. It was a thrill to discover once extinct (from the property) bog orchids and sundews growing in what I thought was the most unlikely places. I am continually discovering new wildflowers. Next post, I will talk about the discovery of a bog only 20 airmiles away that is home to the last remaining Drosera tracyi population in GA. Stay tuned, more pics to come.
These blurry photos from 2005 show the pitcherplants in the bog across from my parents' land. One particular plant (on the left), I call clone C, looks more like a Sarracenia x harperi backrossed with S. minor. My profile pic is a clone that has a red tinge on the petals and a shape suggestive of S. psittacina ancestry.
I don't have a photo of the land now, but it is a big ugly lawn. I did move many of these plants to a wet area on the perimeter of my parents' property - I call this the cane kettle bog, since my family cooks sugarcane syrup nearby. This is a tradition in my family since at least the early 1900s.
S. minor clone C in the cane kettle bog.
The cane kettle bog in the spring.
The Sarracenia here grew there for almost a decade. Unfortunately, the owner of the bordering property was against controlled burns. Even while burning the bog (with permits), the bordering shrubs overgrew and dried the soil. Bayberry are an especially thirsty tree.
Luckily, years earlier my dad dug a pond in the middle of his land. All of a sudden, Drosera proliferated on the sandy banks. Utricularia gibba sprouted in the water, likely brought over by waterfowl. A Habeneria orchid I had last seen in the cane kettle bog over a decade ago sprouted on the edge. Within a year dozens of them surrounded the pond. Many other bog associates began growing on the pond bogs. I introduced some S. minor divisions to these bogs and they have grown very well for the past couple of years.
Drosera capillaris
Drosera brevifolia
Utricularia gibba
Utricularia subulata
S. minor clone 4 in the pond bog.
If you look behind the pond, you can see the longleaf pines. There are patches of native wiregrass groundcover surrounding the trees with healthy mycorrhiza. Occasional Fox Squirrels and Gopher Tortoises visit this area. My goal now is to unite these patches to form a continuous stretch of native groundcover that extends to the pond. This should serve as a buffer that protects the pitcherplants and other wildflowers. A few wet spots within those patches may also be candidates for reintroduction as well. I have had some divisions of a few S. minor clones in cultivation for a while now, and am concentrating on growing those out and getting seed to plant in those candidate areas.
A powerline cuts behind that woodshed in the previous picture (I plan to remove it next time I'm in GA to allow wildflowers to grow). One remaining bog is under the powerlines on the neighboring property. The owner doesn't mind if I use the trails on the lot, so I visit when I can. The pitcherplants are usually beat up. The mowing is not as effective as fire, one large clump is on an ATV trail, and once the owner completely tilled the population to plant a feedplot several years ago. These are some persistent plants. The soil here can be dry, even sampling soil a foot or so down is nearly bone dry some summers. I suspect the resilience is largely due to the health of the longleaf savanna surrounding the population. The in tact ground cover harbors mycorrhiza that store water, defends against rot, and impedes non native plants. The savanna also seems to absorb water more effectively than lawn, which is what the old can kettle bog was surrounded by.
So far, restoring the native groundcover is slow, but rewarding. It involves scraping off a layer of dirt from the pond. The dirt separating the patches allows centipede grass to grow. This centipede interestingly does not compete well with the native groundcover. The places where I have removed the dirt, I have planted wiregrass divisions and seeds collected from the various composites, legumes, gopher apples, running oak, and rare plants like Balduinia, Angelica dentata, and Asclepias. A light mulch of longleaf needles protects them as they begin to grow. So far it has been a success! Wildflowers once declining are now finally expanding. The groundcover is useful to wildlife and humans too. I've counted and successfully propagated over half a dozen species of blueberries, blackberries, PawPaw, and wild passionfruit; all a real treat in the summer.
So here's what I've learned: A bog does not exist in vacuum. Even a wet area on the property could not sustain pitcherplants longterm when the health of the surrounding ecosystems is declining. With that, I have prioritized restoring the native groundcover of the more xeric pinelands in the back of the property and have in the process come to enjoy the diversity that I once overlooked. With a restored longleaf savanna, the pondside bogs are more protected from invasive species, have more beneficial mycorrhiza, and have more regular water.
The last point I've learned is that there is always hope. It was a thrill to discover once extinct (from the property) bog orchids and sundews growing in what I thought was the most unlikely places. I am continually discovering new wildflowers. Next post, I will talk about the discovery of a bog only 20 airmiles away that is home to the last remaining Drosera tracyi population in GA. Stay tuned, more pics to come.