huge population of Sarracenia alata in the wild, Stone Co, MS

[meizwang]

This population of S. alata from Stone Co, MS is probably the largest, most dense population of Sarracenias on the planet! The bog stretches for as far as the eye can see, and the forestry service religiously burns this site every year (from what I could tell). I saw many tree stumps, which means they are removing trees to keep the forest from shading the meadow.

When we visited this site, it was incredibly dry, and most of the fall pitchers were turning brown from water stress. The site was really dry...when I dug into the sandy substrate, it was barely moist. I saw a few pitchers wilting from the lack of water, but fortunately, it looks like it should rain in that area pretty soon.

The good news is this site is the healthiest Sarracenia population I've ever seen. Everywhere you look, there are seedlings, which is a great measure for the health of any population of plants. Despite the water stress, this site will likely continue to thrive for a long time, especially in light of how the forestry service is managing them.

Here's some photos:

The largest trap I could find in the field was almost black and almost looked like a fish's face, haha:

Side view of the same clone-this thing was BULBOUS:

Some brand new fall traps-these will turn solid red when the temps. cool down in the late fall/early winter. If you see any red on the new traps, you know it's a dark clone:

A nice clump: these plants were hard as hell to photograph with the full sun we were having. They're especially hard to photograph the darker they are. Notice the new traps are less red than the older traps:

Another beautiful red clone:

A nice ornate/veined clone:

It smelled like dead animals in this field because there were so many traps filled with insects. Keep in mind I have a sensitive nose:

This one will probably turn black:

A beautiful, standard lemon-green clone with nice shape. You can see how many insects it's already caught, and this trap looked perhaps 2 weeks old:

This trap was probably a bit older than the others, which is why it's so red:

[meizwang]

Some really nice dark red clusters:

These plants were dark:

And now for some habitat shots-notice how most of the traps look red, although a lot of them were all old traps that were brown at the "head" (ie. they were probably early summer pitchers that are now old) There were some plants with very dark red old pitchers, but solid green new fall pitchers:

A picture of the entire field (or as far as the eye can see) from the distance:

Plants tend to colonize the lower lying areas, but they were also found on higher ground as well:

Massive stands:

lots of red:

Check out the new green pitchers, even on "red" plants:

One last shot-pitchers as far as the eye can see!

[SoLongFairWell]

Impressive population.

[ada]

Great photo's as always Mike,no spindly alata's there! one of the best alata's i have is seed grown from there exhibiting that bulbous nature.

keep 'em coming.

ada

[prized]

Beautiful photos Mike!!!

Do you ever find seedlings around those big clumps of Sarracenia (not only alata)?

[kisscool_38]

Thank you for those so many interesting pictures of Sarracenia in their habitat. Just one question, what are those tall orchids that can be seen on the first pictures of this topic?

[Rivers.SND]

Really amazing! It´s so nice to see plants in their natural habitat :)).

Riv

[meizwang]

Thank you everyone!

Yuri-the seedlings seem to be scattered randomly, but sometimes, you'll find them next to big clumps. Keep in mind when it rains heavily in these areas, they temporarily flood. The seeds at this point will float on the water.

Kisscool-I'm not positive what the name of this flower is, but it's not an orchid. Butterflies love it.

Edited September 22, 2013 by meizwang