Monitoring tags:
We walked the squishy edges of a cypress strand (a strand is a name for an elongated patch
of trees), and found these nice little rosettes. Were they P. ionantha? We found some
plants with more open flowers.... Yep! No doubt about it!
Notice the numbered monitoring tags---obviously these plants were being studied by someone. Remember that
P. ionantha is Federally listed as Threatened; that might be why. Oddly, Jim told us that
University botanists studying these plants told him the plants were P. primuliflora, which would be a
real
oddity in this area. We kept our eyes open, but didn't see any P. primuliflora-type flowers.
No plants were vegetatively reproducing from their leaves, as P. primuliflora often does.
I suppose some of the
more purplish P. ionantha flowers at the site
could be mistaken for P. primuliflora.
Jim and Bob started back and forth again about the likelihood that the Drosera we were seeing
were part of a hybrid swarm with D. intermedia, and they left to inspect another area
where Jim said he had found D. intermedia. Alone, I finished my photography and decided to look for
Brian again. I left a note on the road for Jim and Bob, then headed back to the grocery store. No Brian.
Jim and Bob joined me; they wanted to head south to look for Sarracenia leucophylla at Tate's Hell
Swamp. Those plants would look miserable this time of the year, so I told them I would instead head north to the flooded savannah
we had visited earlier in the
day---it was near the road, and if Brian came by I would be easily visible to him.
Are you confused yet? I told you that having three other people along complicated trip logistics!
