The Daily Bucket is a place where we post and exchange our observations about what is happening in the natural world in our neighborhood. Bugs, buds, birds - each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the patterns that are quietly unwinding around us.
Cinco de Mayo 2012
A Saturday hike thru the woodlands of the Apalachicola National Forest in the Florida Panhandle. We travelled south on SR-65 in Liberty County FL, down around Wilma. With forest taking half the county, I could say more trees than people and I'd be off by millions. Most drivers know it as that long straight road to the Gulf Coast with all those boring pine trees and bushes. A few see it as the destination - stop and look, listen! Explore!
Today's hike was lead by Dr. Ann Johnson and Scott Davis and sponsored by the Florida Native Plant Society. heck, here's the email (edited)
We have a very special trip planned for this month. Many of us have driven through, or lightly explored the vastness that the Apalachicola National Forest occupies; but how many of us have been privy to an opportunity to view many of the sites deep within the forest, disjunct from the roaring of the highway? Many of the forests botanical treasures can be found along the network of unpaved forest roads that traverse the wilderness. Please join us Saturday, May 5th, as Dr. Ann Johnson & Scott Davis lead us into this realm; and treat us to some botanical spots overflowing with species many of us are unfamiliar with.
With North Florida's growing season in full swing, the opportunities for close encounters with legions of plant species is now. Many of the endangered & endemic species that enforce our region's reputation as a biodiversity hot spot can be found & photographed during this precious time. The allure of beauty undermines the instinct to avoid the heat!
We can obviously expect to see many incredible things; but among others, we will look for:
The endemic & endangered Thickleaf Waterwillow (Justicia crassifolia)
The elusive Pond Pine (Pinus serotina)
Atlantic White Cedar (Chamaecyparis thyroids)
The endemic & endangered Apalachicola Aster (Eurybia spinulosa)
Hybridizing Yellow & Purple Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia flava & rosea)
The endemic Apalachicola St. John's Wort (Hypericum chapmanii)
It was all that and more, and for unknown reasons, no one else showed up, just me and them - how lucky can a guy get.
300 photos later, deleting 100 right off, skipping another 100 also-rans, that left way too many for 1 diary. So this part of the hike covers the bogs and associated bugs. Driving down the roads, paved or sand, the most visible carnivorous plant is the Yellow or Trumpet Pitcher Plant. Here's a small one with a visiting Georgia Satyr. Note the sundew unfurling behind it.
.. more bogs and bugs below
Yellow Pitcherplants (Sarracenia flava). Sure do love the translucency of these plants enhanced with the bright glow of sunlight. Any direction you look brings a camera-ready shot.
Closeup of one group. Biggest pitcher plant of the day was over 2' tall. The small St John's Wort (Hypericum) to the right is blooming everywhere.
Varying colors and some cool distortions. This area had been recently burned to stop overgrowth that will shade and crowd out the bog plants.
The dark top side of the flower
and underneath
A list of species from the Florida Plant Atlas
I believe this is the Parrot Pitcher Plant. It has a different process to trap insects where they crawl in a small opening with downward-pointing hairs to keep them inside instead of sliding down a slippery tube.
This plant appears to be struggling, perhaps from being shaded and crowded before the burn.
The hybrid Pitcher Plant as noted in the introduction. This is right alongside the forest road. 99.9% of the people going by would never notice it. Ann is in the .1%.
It's a cool looking plant. Ann is checking back now and then in hopes of a flower.
Bugs! 2 moths down the pitcher; these may be the Exyra moth feeding inside or laying eggs. Larvae will eat the walls causing collapse. More detail here. Scott noticed these from outside thru the translucent tube.
This crab spider has a good spot on the upper leaf waiting for a curious bug attracted to the smelly nectar and poison the plant emits. The bright top (Operculum) serves as a great landing spot for flying insects.
2 more spiders, I assume wolf spiders - - down here to feed?
I found this dead plant and we split it open to see all the bugs trapped inside. Guess digestion takes awhile. Scott said he had seen plants so full of bugs they fall over.
Sundew (Drosera) - these petite insect-catchers were thick in this one place. Hard to walk around without stepping on them sometimes.
These threadleaf were more widespread than the pink sundew. Too bad I won't be around to see them both flower this summer.
Ann and Scott as she studies her "Wunderlin" for clues to the roadside Iris at their feet. Forest roads have been there long enough for micro-environments or mini-bogs to become established in the ditches.
So that was a small portion of our Saturday hike around the National Forest. There was so much more - more rare plants, orchids, milkweeds (my fav) and miles and miles of pinetrees and wiregrass. I'm hoping to work up another diary or 2 on this hike as we saw so many great flowering plants, so many new to me, but I'm falling behind. Like Wednesday was another hike and another set of photos from the State Forest known as Tate's Hell.
By the way - it's chigger season down here; gotten more than photos as I wander around. Hot, humid, biting flies, mosquitos, ticks - why am I out here again? Oh yeah, as my Dad said, "the wonder of it all."
3:02 PM PT: The little red sundew is dwarf sundew (Drosera brevifolia) , obviously not pink which is bigger and not as red. sure won't make that slight again...