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Croatan Forest

W

wakeboarder

Hi, I'm new to the forum. I don't have any CP's of my own, but I am very interested in conservation of the picosin habitat in which CP's live. A few miles from where I live, the Croatan forest contains pine savannas and picosins which form the natural habitat for these plants in my area. Pine savannas once covered most of the Southeast coastal region and now, less than 3% of this habitat remains. Below is a photo of a typical savanna with longleaf pines and wire grass. This wire grass is highly flammable and CP's rely on fire to burn off competing plants and the best growth of CP's occurs the year after a fire. The U.S. Park Service does control burns on a regular basis to preserve this habitat. The pines are over 100 years old, but due to poor soil conditions they look much younger. Their trunks are blackened from fire, but they tolerate the burns well. There are also wild orchids and rare wildflowers and endangered butterfly's that grow in this environment and they also depend on fire.

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In the photo below, the pine savanna borders a low picosin or swamp on the left. It is at this border or "ecotone" that most of the CP's grow. In the photo, you can see some pitcher plants (light green plants) in the distance on the left, just at the border of the picosin.

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Below are photos of some of the plants I have found in this region. Enjoy! Hopefully more photos to come.

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very very lucky guy. i think i would frequently visit these sites to take awesome photos if I lived that close. thanks for sharing!
 
Welcome to the forums!
Amazing pictures, so great to see such diversity in the forest! I think every one here will agree it needs to be preserved.
 
Nice first post! Very nice plants and savannah. I always like seeing wild flytraps.
 
Welcome to Terraforums! I frequent croatan at least a few times a year to take photos of all the plants i can find. I was thinking about going this coming weekend. shoot me a pm and maybe we can meet up.
 
mcmcnair said:
Welcome to Terraforums! I frequent croatan at least a few times a year to take photos of all the plants i can find. I was thinking about going this coming weekend. shoot me a pm and maybe we can meet up.
Click to expand...

I was just telling him about you.

He send me a pm hours ago.

I will text you tomorrow, we can probably meet tomorrow so you can take the drosera cuttings for your project.
Bye!
 
Very nice photography of an awesome place. Thanks for posting. You don't have any cps of your own? Beware. :)
 
  • #10
So I spent a few hours in the Croatan again today.... I can't seem to stay away from this place. I thought I would share some more photos..​

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This is a Yellow Fringed Orchid I saw today

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  • #11
Very nice! I went to the mountains today for my rare plants of NC class and saw drosera rotundifolia in a mountain fen. Not quite as exciting as sarracenia but still very cool
 
  • #12
Mcnair, You have to come back soon! I have found more VFT's than I could imagine. When you see so many, it's hard to believe they are endangered. There seems to be a second crop of Saracennia starting and I have found several new clumps of S. rubra.
 
  • #13
Is that a mutate VTF in that last picture?
 
  • #14
Those are some great photos. I agree with wireman seeing dioneaes in the wild just kinda makes me feel diffrent lol. Add seeing natural mutations is simply amazing!
 
  • #15
The photo of the very red VFT has fused cilia.. an interesting mutation. Interestingly, that particular flytrap is surrounded by light green flytraps with minimal coloration from anthocyanin. This must be genetic. For some flytraps, it doesn't matter how much light you give them, they are just not going to turn red. Looking for mutations in Saracennia, flytraps, and drosera is one thing that keeps me going back. I also like to look at the varying soil and water conditions they live in. Some are in areas that flood with rain frequently.. like they are underwater sometimes. Others live in dryer, slightly more elevated areas.. but all are within 20 feet of a picosin.
 
  • #16
I made a quick visit to the Croatan yesterday to see what's going on. For about a month, night time temps have been as low as 30 and daytime temps 40's-70. Drosera are everywhere and some are starting to form hibernaculums while others are not. Sarracenia are variable.. VFT's are in decent shape. Pings are everywhere.




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  • #17
Beautiful area!

Ron, have you looked at this..... kayak trip....
 
  • #19
I see the rubras have already changed colors.
 
  • #20
elgecko said:
Ron, have you looked at this..... kayak trip....
Click to expand...
No - I actually hadn't seen this thread until just now. We'll need to see what types of waterways are nearby or in the Croatan.

This pic (from above) is the 1st time I've seen a VFT with a fused-tooth type mutation that didn't originate from T/C. Very interesting!
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