Well, as some of you may know, I have spent the last few months exploring
the south U.S. because Bridgett and I plan to live there for a few years.
So while we were sizing up places using our peculiar criteria, I slotted
plenty of time for botanizing, for the S.E. US is the mecca for
US/Canadian CP.
First off, some words of wisdom. If you are planning on going to look
for CP anywhere, and are low on time (as I often was), it is essential
to get detailed location information, preferably to within 100 yards.
Then get good maps (i.e. USGS topo maps) to take with you. Even with
this sort of information, I often had to survey areas on foot before I
found where the plants were. Here in the desert you can get a good idea
of the habitats for the nearest 20 miles just by looking around. This
is not the case for the S.E., where a bog may be 10 meters away and you
may not know it. Really, you need good location info!
Second, make sure you can identify that lovely plant, poison ivy. Some of the
places I visited were inundated by the stuff. If I had charged through it,
things would have been bad. Exploration is also slowed by various prickly
plants, notable "briars" and that most obnoxious species, _Smilax
laurifolia_---appropriately known as "blaspheme vine".
Third, look in your reference books for the following plants. _Aletris
farinosa, Aletris lutea, Polygala lutea_, and _Dichromena spp_. I've found
these plants are good "indicator species." By this, I mean they are
highly visible from a distance (or the road), and are plants often found
growing with CPs. I've rated them in order of increasing usefulness. When
I was driving along and saw _Aletris_, I'd keep my eyes open. When I'd see
_Polygala_, I'd slow down. When I saw _Dichromena latifolia_, I'd park.
Bridgett and I left New Orleans for the Mississipii/Alabama border. At
this point I'd never seen _Sarracenia_ other than _S.purpurea purpurea_
in the wild and so didn't know where to look. But soon we spotted
_S.alata_, the green veined form. We found it in very few places, but
where we did it grew like a weed. And here I discovered the first
revelation that was reinforced over and over again....the ground is not
wet! I was expecting mucky dirt, beds of _Sphagnum_, and treacherous
ground. Such was not the case. The _Sarracenia_ were growing through a
thatch of dried knee-high grasses, among pine trees. Sticking my finger
into the soil it was moist, even wet, but not sopping. The plants were
growing very well, and were unaware that just about *every* location
had "For Sale" or other realty signs on them. I wonder how many other
locations would have been visible just last year? Crouching on all
fours to inspect some _D.capillaris_, I encountered fire ants on a
first-hand basis, my right hand that is. I avoided them carefully from then
on. At a few of these places we also started to encounter _S.psitticina_
and _D.filiformis var. tracyi_ as well as _U.subulata (which was ubiquitious)
and _P.lutea_.
After keying out a few nice orchids (_Calopogon tuberosus_, _Pogonia
ophioglossoides_, _Cleistes divaricata_) we left for parts of Alabama
north of Mobile bay. We were searching for _S.leucophylla_. When we found it
they were unlike any plants I have ever seen in cultivation. The plants
were about 2/3 the size of plants I've seen grown, and the white lids
had pencil-thin red veining on the lids. Very attractive and delicate
plants. These plants were growing together with _S.purpurea venosa_, and
hybrids were common. These plants were growing in wetter terrain that
supported much more _Sphagnum_ than did the _S.alata_ locations. After
keying out a few _Utrics_, namely _U.striata_ in a few spots, we headed
back to the coast for Florida, and the _S.flava_ we hoped to find.
To be continued...