Post by calen on Jun 16, 2013 22:26:21 GMT -5
Last week my girlfriend Shanna and I zipped up to the northern Sierra Nevada for a quick CP trip!
Part 1: Willow Lake.
This is Willow Lake in Lassen Co., looking suitably boreal after a morning of rain. Sitting at 5,315 feet elevation, some of you will already know it as California's only quaking or floating sphagnum bog. The grassy areas in the foreground and on the far shore of the lake are in fact not meadows but floating mats of sphagnum moss about 2 feet thick, held together by various sedges, grasses, and the odd blueberry bush. When you jump up and down on it it ripples outwards in all directions under your feet. This is a sensation that must be experienced to be fully appreciated!
s1329.photobucket.com/user/calenhall/media/IMG_2453_zpsb229c00d.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3
And of course where you find sphagnum, you usually find CP. In this case there is an absolute embarrassment of Drosera.
Here is Drosera rotundifolia. The round-leaved sundews here were rather small and unimpressive compared to others I've seen - you might miss them if you didn't know they were here. Unlike the other two sundews, these guys mostly kept to the sphagnum pillows and the occasional exposed peaty area and avoided the slimy ooze zones.
s1329.photobucket.com/user/calenhall/media/IMG_2441_zps916f96cf.jpg.html?sort=3&o=6
This is D. anglica. Barry Rice pointed out to me that Willow Lake D. anglica has an exceptionally long and narrow leaf - almost capensis-like. (More Mr. Rice in Part II...) Notice the turned leaf in the lower left - very slender.
s1329.photobucket.com/user/calenhall/media/IMG_2445_zpsbbfa980c.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5
D. rotundifolia and the very gracile D. anglicas of course hybridize to produce D. x obovata. As Barry also pointed out, because of the influence of the anglica leaf shape the hybrids look very much like typical D. anglica from other locations. The x obovata was the biggest, most vigorous Drosera in the bog - note the paddle-shaped leaves:
s1329.photobucket.com/user/calenhall/media/IMG_2448_zps698f7023.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4
Utricularia spp. also grow in the bog, but we didn't get any pictures. They like to grow in the oozier areas on the mat, not in the sphagnum itself or in the open water. Some of the traps were quite large - perhaps 1/4" across. From what I have been told, ascertaining the true identity of these Willow Lake bladderworts is something of a taxonomic pain in the a**.
I'll get Part II: Butterfly Valley Botanical Area, a.k.a. bring on the Sarraceniaceae already! up on here ASAP.
Part 1: Willow Lake.
This is Willow Lake in Lassen Co., looking suitably boreal after a morning of rain. Sitting at 5,315 feet elevation, some of you will already know it as California's only quaking or floating sphagnum bog. The grassy areas in the foreground and on the far shore of the lake are in fact not meadows but floating mats of sphagnum moss about 2 feet thick, held together by various sedges, grasses, and the odd blueberry bush. When you jump up and down on it it ripples outwards in all directions under your feet. This is a sensation that must be experienced to be fully appreciated!
s1329.photobucket.com/user/calenhall/media/IMG_2453_zpsb229c00d.jpg.html?sort=3&o=3
And of course where you find sphagnum, you usually find CP. In this case there is an absolute embarrassment of Drosera.
Here is Drosera rotundifolia. The round-leaved sundews here were rather small and unimpressive compared to others I've seen - you might miss them if you didn't know they were here. Unlike the other two sundews, these guys mostly kept to the sphagnum pillows and the occasional exposed peaty area and avoided the slimy ooze zones.
s1329.photobucket.com/user/calenhall/media/IMG_2441_zps916f96cf.jpg.html?sort=3&o=6
This is D. anglica. Barry Rice pointed out to me that Willow Lake D. anglica has an exceptionally long and narrow leaf - almost capensis-like. (More Mr. Rice in Part II...) Notice the turned leaf in the lower left - very slender.
s1329.photobucket.com/user/calenhall/media/IMG_2445_zpsbbfa980c.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5
D. rotundifolia and the very gracile D. anglicas of course hybridize to produce D. x obovata. As Barry also pointed out, because of the influence of the anglica leaf shape the hybrids look very much like typical D. anglica from other locations. The x obovata was the biggest, most vigorous Drosera in the bog - note the paddle-shaped leaves:
s1329.photobucket.com/user/calenhall/media/IMG_2448_zps698f7023.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4
Utricularia spp. also grow in the bog, but we didn't get any pictures. They like to grow in the oozier areas on the mat, not in the sphagnum itself or in the open water. Some of the traps were quite large - perhaps 1/4" across. From what I have been told, ascertaining the true identity of these Willow Lake bladderworts is something of a taxonomic pain in the a**.
I'll get Part II: Butterfly Valley Botanical Area, a.k.a. bring on the Sarraceniaceae already! up on here ASAP.