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Southwestern Oregon Darlingtonias, Sept. 2010


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In september 2010, I took a trip to re-visit a montane habitat site in Southwestern Oregon. Some of you may recall a post I did earlier, which showed plants just coming out of dormancy and starting to push out flower buds. The first few pictures in this post are the same exact population, only months later. This time, I took Damon Collinsworth of California Carnivores to join me.

Unfortunately, it rained the whole time we were up there, so it was difficult taking pictures. The habitat is absolutely amazing-it's incredibly rocky, with many dying trees, so there's a lot of sunlight exposure.

Damon was complaining that I was always in the "good spots" ruining his photos...Too-Shay!(note Damon in the background):

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Huge patch of plants. This seep was pretty large and dense. The substrate is pure rock with a thin layer of dead grass on top as a substrate, just barely clinging onto the rocks:

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Another habitat shot. Note how it looks like the plants have colonized a creek. Perhaps when it's drier during the summer, the surrounding areas are more difficult to survive due to lack of water:

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Another shot of the dense population

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Habitat overview. It's an open field with dead or dying trees. Imagine trying to survive in nutrient poor pure rock!

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Close up-plants were thriving up there!

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The next few photos are from a similar location, except it was quite a hike up a huge mountain. I convinced Damon to do the hike, telling him it looked like it wasn't a far hike according to the map. In the distance, there was a huge mountain. It turned out we climbed to the very top of the mountain, then finally found a pond on the other side filled with darlingtonia on the banks. Damon almost killed me that day.

Plants growing on the side of the pond:

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Overview shot-note: plants are fully submerged in water, but since it's a large body of water with creeks feeding into it, the water is highly oxygenated:

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a closer shot:

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Pond overview. It was raining hard when we got to the pond, but it was worth the hike-such a beautiful site that only nature knows how to make:

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Edited by meizwang
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