Florida Carnivores

Ok folks, I made it back out to the Brooker Creek Preserve today. I spoke with someone at the PArks and Rec dept and she told me I would find more hooded pitcher plants by a different entrance. That's where I went today and right where the trail split I found these wonderful guys having a party. A family of four happened to be walking the trail and as they passed I pointed out the pitcher plants and told them they were endangered. They told me they had seen some earlier and that made me happy. I got to educate someone and I know the pitcher plants are thriving.

I tried last weekend to find pictures of some sundews for you guys, but I had no luck. Today was different. I found lots of little guys. I have seen one on the trail that was about 3 inches across and bright red. I was just walking along and saw this bright red thing and thought, "What's that?" I had never seen a sundew before, and I had to go home and look it up. I haven't found one that big since, but I'll keep looking. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy these...

More sundews

I hope you like seeing them in their native environment too. It seems like most of the people in this forum have to grow them inside. I just knew once I saw pitcher plants there had to be sundews near. I was right, I just had to get six inches from the ground to see them!

Sundew # 4!

A small cluster of sundews

And another little family of sundews

Now, at heart I'm a bromeliad lover. Florida has quite a few native tillandsias (airplants) but other than ball moss and Spanish moss, I never see them. But when I was rising up from taking a sundew photo, I looked up and saw this beauty right in front of me. It makes me so happy to see these endangered species living and thriving. Protecting these areas is so important. I hope when everyone goes out to vote this fall you think about how the candidates stand on environmental protections in your area. I hate to think that we might lose some of our favorite plants forever.

Keeping things on a positive note, I did see where there were quite a few hooded pitcher plant babies. These were incredibly small, not even the size of a pencil. I found these behind the cluster in the first picture so I hope that means the seeds are getting out there and spreading all over the place.

Some more tiny little pitchers

Looks like some really nice Drosera rotundifolia to me.

The really bright tiny red ones might have been Drosera brevifolia. They are down your way too.

You should be on the lookout for Drosera filiformis, D. tracyi, as well as D. intermedia as those are all down your way too. Come to think of it, D. capillaris is down there too and I think there is a naturally occurring hybrid.

I really enjoyed your pictures. It's so much fun finding these in the wild.

Does anyone know what the other little plants are in photo #7? I see them alot in the bogs I've found. Just curious.