Hello all.
Well, I just finished a three week ramble through the Southeastern US. I
am not going to give a detailed report, but rather a few highlights.
TEXAS I spent 2 days exploring locations in the fabulous Big Thicket
region of eastern Texas. This region is noted, not so much for rare
species, as for the amazing confluence of different plant communities
and lifezones. Wetland, desert, riparian, forest, scrub and others
comingle. A veritable nexus in Texas. Also in this area is De Soto
National Forest. I visited several locations, including fabulous S.
alata habitats filled with so many plants it brought tears to my eyes.
:) But at the well known S. alata ``pipeline site'' I also found
evidence of field collection including holes and polyethylene baggies.
People---if you are going to be jerks and collect,
*at least* clean up after yourselves!
Another time, I hiked for eight miles into the Big Thicket just to discover
that the S. alata bog I wished to visit had a new access to it---a 1.9 mile
asphalt path that was even wheelchair accessible! Heh heh heh.
Despite trail guides and other sources of information that claimed
D. brevifolia was present, I could only find D. capillaris. Presumably the
ephemeral D. brevifolia had died for the year.
ALABAMA
After a few days of eating my fill of New Orleans oysters, collards,
crayfish, jazz, blues, and zydeco, I travelled through southern Alabama
and the panhandle of Florida. I located some beautiful S.leucophylla
bogs with S.rubra wherryi, S. psittacina, and various Drosera and
Utricularia. In my joy at seeing my first thick S. leucophylla bog, I burned
a roll of film, sometimes lying on the ground to best position my tripod.
What a mistake! I spent the next day removing ticks. I had the pleasure of
meeting the man who owns the land harboring a famous S. leucophylla bog.
This fellow raises timber but keeps these savannahs burnt to encourage the
CP to grow there. A very nice and enlightened guy. He told me he likes to
fire the habitats every three years, but because of increasing regulations
it is becoming extremely difficult to do so because of govnm't officials who
must be present for these events.
FLORIDA
I retraced steps I had taken a few years before, and visited some savannahs
in Apalachicola filled with S. flava, purpurea, psittacina, various Drosera,
Utricularia, and Pinguicula. There, as at the Texas pipeline site, I found
polyethylene bags left by collectors. Aaargh! This is not appropriate
behavior! This is a national forest, not a nursery! I proceeded to another
less-known savannah filled with all-red and red-tube/yellow-lid plants.
Very very nice. On the way home I ate at ``Joyce's Kitchen'' (or something
like that in Hosford, Florida). When I asked for some oysters, Joyce yelled
at me! ``Ate em all up at lunch!'' I opted for scallops. I inquired about
collards.``No! You'll settle for cheese-grits!'' When I requested pie,
she became absolutely still, glared at me, then said angrily, ``Ate those up
too!'' Abashed, I sat in my folding chair at my cardtable dining spot, and
ate my dinner in silence. Later I was relieved to see that Joyce yelled at
everyone who came in, so I actually fit in nicely.
GEORGIA
I couldn't pass through Georgia without stopping by the Okefenokee Swamp.
There I burnt a few more rolls of films, photographing mostly Utricularia.
As I stood in a deep roadside ditch up to my chest in water, with my tripod
arranged as tall as it could to keep my camera dry, I also became the
subject of photography as passing swamp-bound tourists slowed in their cars
to snap photos! I was amused.
SOUTH CAROLINA I stopped by several places, some of which I had seen
before. I won't discuss them all as not all were particularly relevant
to CP. But there were three highlights.
The first was a trip to Fort Stockton Army Base, led by some Nature
Conservancy folk, biologists from USC, and an elderly botanist named
Batson. The point was to find a specimen of a newly described Lobelia
(we were at the type location with the discoverer). When we found it we
snapped photos of the plant with Batson, for whom this plant (Lobelia
batsonii) was named. At this hillside seep, there were also plenty of
S. rubra rubra, purpurea venosa, D. capillaris, and (much to my great
pleasure) D. brevifolia. The hillside seep occurred at an old firing
range, and we were given instructions not to disturb any metal objects
because they might have been unexploded armaments!
A second field trip was to one of the largest populations of
S. rubra jonesii in the wild. After a few hours of scouting around the
reported location (on a protected preserve) I found my goal. A stream
flowing down a hillside passed over a granite outcrop a few hundred feet
wide. The outcrop was steep, smooth, and very slick. Pitcher plants
grew in a long band along the edge of the rock outcrop, in Sphagnum.
This habitat is called a cataract bog---a new one on me. I managed to
maneuver to some fine spots and burnt a few more rolls of films while
getting completely wet. I hope to put some photos on the web or in the
CP journals. While logging is frequent in the surrounding areas, it is
of course not allowed on the preserve. Nonetheless, a few months ago a
group of loggers became ``confused'' and logged several acres right in
the center of the preserve! Fortunately, the critical habitats were
spared.
Another trip was to a Carolina Bay which is now a preserve because it
is
intact and undeveloped. Carolina bays are extremely interesting
wetlands. They are elliptical regions with dimensions ranging from a
fraction to a few miles in length. Particularly difficult to explain is
why they all occur with their major axes aligned northwest-southeast.
Many have a raised sandy rim, especially on the southeast corner.
Approximately 2000 to 4000 bays have been estimated to be in South
Carolina, but only about 250 have not been developed or destroyed. More
are found in North Carolina. Different bays have different amounts of
moisture in their interiors---some are simply pine woodlands, other are
swampland. This bay was in a pine woodland, and by walking 200 feet I
travelled from the dry pine forest, over a sandy rim, and descended into
a fully developed cypress/tupelo (Taxodium and Nyssa) swamp with
standing water. The transition is abrupt and astonishing. I read some
literature which claimed Carolina bays had astronomical origins (craters
from some meteoric impact) and as an astronomer I can say the data,
arguments, and concepts were weak at best, pathetic and laughable
otherwise.
All in all, a fine set of trips.
In my next posting, I have a few philosophical observations...
Barry