Post by meizzwang on Nov 6, 2013 10:57:25 GMT -5
I wish we visited the south earlier in the year. In June, everything, including the flavas, have traps in their prime, and it's not 102 F with close to 100% humidity out there! If you've ever tried to stay outside under such conditions for more than 2 hours, you will know what we experienced...it's savage!
Fortunately, some of the S. flava var. rugelii traps were in okay condition...enough to get a glimpse of what was going on out there in the wild. In other years, the traps by now would have been completely brown by September, and at other sites, they were.
The okaloosa County rugeliis were very interesting, and Damon Collingsworth mentioned these plants were much like the newly registered S. flava 'Bob Hanrahan'-scroll down the page a bit: www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v42n3p107_109.html Traps on these plants were beyond belief gigantic, and the lid on some of these were unreal! It's always tough to capture the actual size of these beast with photos, and I don't think I did a good job this time-you'll just have to take my word for it
Photos were taken Sept. 8, 2013 in Okaloosa Co, FL. Here's a nice sized savanna filled with leucophyllas, psittacinas, red flavas, rugelii's, and moorei's:
These flavas were extraordinary! Wish we could have seen them a few months earlier:
I've seen this before in other populations-can anyone explain what's going on? Never seen this happen to plants in cultivation:
Almost all of them in this photo have this 'dried up nectar" looking substance on the throat. This only happened to a minority of the plants here:
Some nice plants out there!
Habitat overview: notice the plants are only growing in the middle of the photo. This is because this site is hilly, and there's a "ditch" with a creek or seep running through the middle. Both sides of the "ditch" are dry because they're a bit uphill and sloped:
Another shot of the same ditch. Take a look at the trees, and notice how they're black at the trunk, and there are no lower branches. This site is regularly burned:
Flavas seemed to be "patchy" at this location, and they seemed to form huge clumps that were all a single clone. This is unlike many of the other populations of rugelii's that I've seen, where you see a lot of different individuals, but not many large clumps:
Notice how they're all found growing in one area here. This has a gentle slope, and there's a seep that flows down it. The plants only grow where the seep flows because the rest of the surrounding field is too dry to colonize:
Pretty neat:
Great colors, even for an old, dying pitcher:
some more old traps-reminds me of going to a pumpkin patch after halloween is over:
I like how many of the red in many of the rugelii's here have slight red veins that fade away as you go up the lid. Most of the flava rugelii's don't have this:
green lynx spider:
Yup, this is a fattie (and I'm not referring to my arms, haha):
One last shot of the monsters to end the show:
Fortunately, some of the S. flava var. rugelii traps were in okay condition...enough to get a glimpse of what was going on out there in the wild. In other years, the traps by now would have been completely brown by September, and at other sites, they were.
The okaloosa County rugeliis were very interesting, and Damon Collingsworth mentioned these plants were much like the newly registered S. flava 'Bob Hanrahan'-scroll down the page a bit: www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Species/v42n3p107_109.html Traps on these plants were beyond belief gigantic, and the lid on some of these were unreal! It's always tough to capture the actual size of these beast with photos, and I don't think I did a good job this time-you'll just have to take my word for it
Photos were taken Sept. 8, 2013 in Okaloosa Co, FL. Here's a nice sized savanna filled with leucophyllas, psittacinas, red flavas, rugelii's, and moorei's:
These flavas were extraordinary! Wish we could have seen them a few months earlier:
I've seen this before in other populations-can anyone explain what's going on? Never seen this happen to plants in cultivation:
Almost all of them in this photo have this 'dried up nectar" looking substance on the throat. This only happened to a minority of the plants here:
Some nice plants out there!
Habitat overview: notice the plants are only growing in the middle of the photo. This is because this site is hilly, and there's a "ditch" with a creek or seep running through the middle. Both sides of the "ditch" are dry because they're a bit uphill and sloped:
Another shot of the same ditch. Take a look at the trees, and notice how they're black at the trunk, and there are no lower branches. This site is regularly burned:
Flavas seemed to be "patchy" at this location, and they seemed to form huge clumps that were all a single clone. This is unlike many of the other populations of rugelii's that I've seen, where you see a lot of different individuals, but not many large clumps:
Notice how they're all found growing in one area here. This has a gentle slope, and there's a seep that flows down it. The plants only grow where the seep flows because the rest of the surrounding field is too dry to colonize:
Pretty neat:
Great colors, even for an old, dying pitcher:
some more old traps-reminds me of going to a pumpkin patch after halloween is over:
I like how many of the red in many of the rugelii's here have slight red veins that fade away as you go up the lid. Most of the flava rugelii's don't have this:
green lynx spider:
Yup, this is a fattie (and I'm not referring to my arms, haha):
One last shot of the monsters to end the show: