Big Cypress National Preserve:
The loop drive
is great. I found a quiet pulloff, took GPS and compass reading from my
car, and headed into the swamp for the day. These are small cypress
trees (Taxodium distichum). My guess is that some point this area
was clearcut, and these trees are the regrowth. The ground was
was covered with water ranging in depth from few cm to a
meter or so (an inch, to a yard). This area is probably the twiggiest
place I have ever been. The deciduous cypress trees were bare of needles,
but their horizontally held twigs poked everywhere. It was twiggy,
twiggy, twiggy. A twig universe.
The grass you see is sawgrass
(Cladium jamaicense), a tough, stiff plant with serrate edges. It
is a twiggy grass.
The sheet of surface water housed plenty of
Utricularia foliosa, but no other carnivores. I was in particular
looking for Drosera capillaris. Perhaps
the seasonal flooding makes this habitat unacceptable to sundews.
