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Monitoring Venus Flytraps in Florida: Amazing 1-year timelapse About 1500 km south of their native habitats in the Carolinas, Venus flytraps (Dionaea muscipula), propagated from seeds, find a comparable environment in open long leaf pine forest on the property of Bill Scholl in northern Florida. Originally, they relied on occasional wildfires that remove not only dry undergrowth but also the wiregrass that often grows over them. Presently, on Bill’s property, they benefit from controlled burns done by Bill and his burn team to manage the habitat. ften only the parts of the Venus flytraps near the surface are killed by the fire so they quickly resprout in areas cleared of overgrowth, although, where wiregrass is abundant it rapidly grows over the flytraps. In the summer, tropical storms and hurricanes are common with heavy rains that temporally inundate the Venus flytraps. A controlled burn was done on the forest surrounding the Venus flytraps in this timelapse in April, the effects of which can easily be seen in this amazing timelapse over the complete year of 2022. We (Irmgard and myself) edited and produced this film in collaboration with Dr. Stephen Williams (USA), who assembled the timelapse sequences from daily photos taken by a stationary wildlife camera, and Bill Scholl, who did the video monitoring on his property.

While in Sarracenia territory, we happened to stumble upon a couple of pinguiculas in the wild. Butterworts weren't found at many sites, but when they were there, they grew in abundance. Interestingly enough, they could be found in areas that no sarracenia (has ever gone before, hehe) could ever survive because it was way too dry! Perhaps these Southern butterworts are somewhat like their mexican cousins in the sense that they produce relatively succulent leaves, which allow them to tolerate more drought-like conditions. Their compact growth and small surface area may also be the reason they can grow in these dry areas. We mostly saw Pingicula lutea in a lot of sites, and I was shocked to see many of these yellow flowered butterworts produced thin, pencil-like elongated leaves. unfortunately, I don't think I photographed any . Perhaps this is because the grass gets so tall by end of the summer that they have to find some way to get more light, or else they'll bite the dust. I had been dreaming of finding P. primuliflora before the trip (never seen it in situ before), and on the plane ride home, I lamented that we didn't see any....until we went over the photos and realized we did see them!!!! Sorry Fernando, if you're out there, we didn't mean to let you down with our crappy ping skills :) Anyhow, here are the photos! P. lutea in situ at the S. rubra wherryi roadside site in Washington Co, AL. Notice how just like the rubra wherryi's, the pings also survived being run over by a tractor...they're tough little gems: Closer shot of a single plant from the same site: medium was this really fine, silty clay with a pinch of well decomposed organic, peaty material mixed in: I think this is another roadside population in washington Co, AL: They loved to inhabit the open areas, and seemed to thrive in full sun: Brown chicken, brown cow!!! Yes, these are that hot (to me at least): These were huge P. lutea plants-just beautiful: I wasn't meant to be a photographer: Here's some growing at a site in okaloosa Co, FL: Drosera capillaris (?) is a common companion plant: Butterworts were worse to find than S. psittacina-this is what you're typically up against...can you find the P. lutea in this picture? Some of the P. luteas were pretty big: P. primuliflora was growing in the very wet, boggy areas. Okaloosa Co, FL: A closer shot-I'm double guessing myself, but I'm sorta sure these are primulifloras: One last shot: