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Darlingtonia, deep in the mountains of Oregon, May 30, 2010


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I recently took a trip to see Darlingtonia in the wild, and the first spot I visited was high up in the mountains of Southwestern Oregon. It was a long, windy dirt road with 20 miles of flooded potholes. Don't get me wrong-it was a very exciting drive!

As I reached the summit, the mountain habitat changed from a lush coniferous forest to a bunch of dead trees with short shrubs. There were still little patches of snow, and the daytime temperature, despite the intense sun, was a brisk 60 degrees F (approx. 16 C).

A view of the overall habitat. Note all the dead trees.

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The snowmelt seeps into the rocky, porous mountain substrate. This is what feeds the springs that the darlingtonias grow in.

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An overview of the Darlingtonia habitat. Note how only a few trees are growing in this area.

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Plants growing on the edge of crystal clear pools. Note the rocks in the bottom of the pool. At the edge of the pool, there is a very thin layer of decomposing grass on top of the rocks, and this is what the darlingtonia grow on.

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This is one plant whose main growth point died off, so a ton of stolons emerged. Note how the stolons are just floating in the water.

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patch of darlingtonia. These are all old pitchers from last year. Keep in mind they were under thick snow just a few months ago.

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Growing on the edges of a little stream

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Old darlingtonia pitcher-a bit beat up from the winter

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They were just starting to grow. Plants high up in the mountains tend to start growing later than the plants lower in elevation.

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The flowers were just opening

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A beautiful lily growing in the darlingtonia seep-anybody know what it is?

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Another habitat shot. Again, you can see the thin layer of decomposing grass on top of nothing but porous rock

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Plants are drowning!

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Plants grow very dense patches

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Edited by meizwang
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How wonderful!

It must have been brilliant seeing them growing in the wild like that.

One thing though, whats killing all the trees?

Edited by LoopyLee
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Hi Loopy,

I'm not exactly sure what's killing the trees-at first, I thought it might have been fire. I noticed that only summits of the mountains have these forests of dead trees. Also, the summits are almost pure rock substrate, where as lower elevations have a lot more sand & silt.

Edited by meizwang
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Hi Loopy,

I'm not exactly sure what's killing the trees-at first, I thought it might have been fire. I noticed that only summits of the mountains have these forests of dead trees. Also, the summits are almost pure rock substrate, where as lower elevations have a lot more sand & silt.

In the words of Yogi Berra, "You can learn a lot by observing." Thanks for sharing!

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Beautiful and unique scenery, thanks a lot for sharing.

Doesnt Pinguicula macroceras ssp nortensis grow there too, or isnt that part of its distribution area? Did you check the seeping rocks and dripping grasses?

In this particular location, there weren't any pings or droseras. However, in other sites, I did find some P. macroceras ssp. nortensis.

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A beautiful lily growing in the darlingtonia seep-anybody know what it is?

Reduced: 57% of original size [ 1000 x 750 ] - Click to view full image

This is a beautiful Trillium grandiflorum.

It's also nice to see the plants growing together with Darlingtonia esp. Cypripedium californicum.

Very nice pics, thanks for showing.

Ronny

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Hi Mike,

Thanks for taking the time to share all those photos with us. It's one of my goals to visit cobra country to see them in the wild for myself. In the mean time I just have to make do and satisfy my desire to see these amazing plants with posts on this forum.

Kind regards,

Dave.

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