Date: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 12:08:12 +0000 From: sfarrington@ridgway.mobot.org To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3436$foo@default> Subject: Re: Cp's in Missouri
As a new resident of Missouri, I was interested to see what we had in
the state. A couple of people have told me that they have seen
pitcher plants and sundews in the Ozarks, but I was suspicious,
so I asked George Yatskievych, who is working here at the Missouri
Botanical Garden updating the Flora of Missouri. I am copying (with
his permission) an e-mail he sent me:
> Missouri is not blessed with very many carnivorous plants. Right
> now, we know of only three species of Utricularia and no other
> genera. The bladderworts of Missouri include the U. gibba (humped
> bladderwort) you mentioned, as well as a larger-flowered species,
> common bladderwort, which has been called U. vulgaris or U.
> macrorhiza in the literature (depending on whether you believe that
> North American plants differ from typical U. vulgaris in Europe, as
> I do). These are both submerged aquatics. The third species, which
> was only located in Missouri in 1995, is U. subulata (I don't know a
> common name for it). This is a terrestrial species that grows in
> open, marly areas of a few fens in the Ozarks (it is widespread in
> the southeastern U.S. and was recently also discovered in Illinois).
>
> However, Illinois has many more carnivorous plants than Missouri, by
> virtue of its northern counties adjacent to Lake Michigan, which
> have cooler climate and a number of snady wetlands and bogs that
> don't occur in Missouri. Illinois has a pitcher plant, Sarracenia
> purpurea, as well as two sundews, Drosera intermedia and D.
> rotundifolia. In addition to the three bladderworts found in
> Missouri, it also has three other species of Utricularia, U. cornuta
> (horned bladderwort), U. intermedia (flat leaved bladderwort), and
> U. minor (small bladderwort).
> Occasionally I get reports of pitcher plants or more usually sundews
> in the Ozarks. However, I have never had anyone provide proof of
> their existence. This would mean bringing in a specimen or
> photograph along with notes on exactly where the plants were found.
> I doubt that any of these plants occur naturally in the Ozarks,
> because in Missouri the right habitats don't seem to occur, but
> anything is possible. A few years ago no one would have believed
> that a terrestrial bladderwort occurred in Missouri either! It's
> also possible that someone planted something. This has happened
> before, as in northern California where someone planted several
> types of pitchewr plants at a site and they became naturalized
> alongside the native Darlingtonia (cobra lily) growing there.
>
> If you should receive some evidence that there really are such
> plants growing wild in Missouri, I would like to know about it so
> that I can potentially include the plants in the new edition of
> Steyermark's Flora of Missouri.
Hope this info is useful to you, and if anyone can prove existence of
other cp's in Missouri, let me know!
Susan Farrington
Missouri Botanical Garden
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