Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 09:16:14 -0400 From: "Tom Massey" <massey@fmhi.usf.edu> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2001$foo@default> Subject: RE: Florida drought
Well, just for a little update. Here in Tampa we are a better off now, even
tho the rain is still spotty in some places. Officially, we have had about
6 1/2 inches of rain in June, all in the last 10 days of the month. At my
place it has also rained every day in July. Everything is green again!
Tom in Fl.
Steven said...
> I would be interested to hear from others about how extensive the
> drought problem is.
Well, on my way to the ICPS conference, I spent some time in Florida.
While I cannot, obviously, compare the conditions to other years as
I'd never been there before - every place we saw was seriously dry.
Thanks to the generosity of various list members (Tom Massey, Randy Zerr,
Barry Meyers-Rice et al) we had good instructions on where to see various
plants. We saw live examples of all the Sarracenia species I expected,
assorted Drosera, the odd Pinguicula and a couple of Utricularia. All
looked to be under various forms of drought stress (ie we never saw an
aquatic Utric. U. cornuta and U. purpurea were only found as terrestrials).
Many of the Sarracenia were very dry, for example the S. minor that Tom took
us to see near Tamapa were looking rather sad. S. alata, S. luec, S. psitt
and S. flava in Alabama, Mississippi and the Florida panhandle were also
somewhat dessicated and nowhere did we see standing water near CP sites
although I have reason to believe these same sites are a lot damper in
more normal years.
Basically, I was very impressed on how well the plants we saw were doing
considering the 'desert-like' conditions they appeared to be growing in (the
Saw Palmetto was wilting!). I find it hard to imagine how the white silica
sand most CPs seemed to be growing in could hold any significant moisture.
Interestingly there seemed to be very few flower stalks on any of the
Sarracenia...
Anyhow, it all opened my eyes as to how and where these plants grow. To me,
western Louisiana looked like what I expected most of Florida to be.
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