The Carnivorous Plant FAQ Field Trip Report -

Explorations in the Borderlands, 2002

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Christian living:
The lake on Dave's maps turned out to be in the center of an extremely developed campground for christians. Unfortunately, with all the landscaping and habitat transformation, it looked unpromising for carnivorous plants. Prominent signs had slogans like "Clean camping & Christian living". I noted that Dave did not turn down the volume of his blaring death-goth music, which I think was screaming something about how "God hates us all!" Ah, youth.

Anyway, we parked the car and headed towards a part of the lakeshore that looked the most undeveloped. A quaint little bridge led to an island, and in the muckier parts we found a wealth of carnivores.

Look! Utricularia! This plant made me scratch my head for a few minutes. Dave can attest that I waffled before deciding upon its identification. Obviously, it is either U. cornuta or U. juncea--but which? I settled on U. cornuta because of the flower size, which matched both Taylor's description and Kondo's chart, and the early flowering season (U. juncea doesn't flower for several months). Even so, the flowers were a bit scattered along the stem more than I would have liked, but sometimes the plants just don't behave properly.

I like how this photograph shows an aspect that I feel is so typical of the Pine Barrens: see one carnivore, see many. Less obscurely expressed--an area suitable for one species usually has just about them all, practically sitting on one another. On this little island we found U. subulata, U. cornuta, S. purpurea, D. intermedia, D. rotundifolia, and D. filiformis. Do you see the S. purpurea and D. intermedia lurking in the background? You can't tell, but there is D. rotundifolia mixed in there too. The U. subulata and D. filiformis are right behind you.

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Revised: October 2007
©Barry Rice, 2005