The Trip:
In
April 2005, Beth and I travelled to New Orleans to sate ourselves on food and music.
So, I ask you to begin this retrospective
by imagining three days of eating, eating, and eating: Acme Oyster Company, Praline Connection, Cafe du Monde,
Emeril's, Felix's and so on. When not eating, we danced to jazz and walked endlessly through the French Quarter and
various districts in a desperate attempt to refind our appetites for the next monumental meal.
Inevitably we found ourselves glutted, dazed and in need of a break. So we retreated to a safe distance by getting
Lake Pontchartrain between New Orleans and our distended bellies. Looking for wildlife and plants was necessary
to recover and rejuvenate our dietary equilibria.
Southeastern Louisiana and especially southern Mississippi comprise
the bulk of the range for
Sarracenia alata. While a nice, erect pitcher plant, this species is not particularly showy and is perhaps
underappreciated as a result. But as you know from my domain name, I really do like Sarracenia, so I was
excited at the prospect of visiting the last great S. alata places.
While most of the photographs here
are of carnivorous plants growing on inland locations, near the end of this photo-essay I will serve up a little
lagniappe--a few images from carnivores we saw on the coast.
Start the photo-essay!
P.S. All this happened about four months before Hurricane Katrina. The sites shown in the first ten, and last seven of the slides were heavily flooded.
