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Trip to north carolina

Ozzy

SirKristoff is a poopiehead
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I went to NC a few weeks ago and I spent one day looking for plants. I found a lot. It was one of the most productive days I've had looking for plants in a long time. I found some plants in places I've never seen them before. I got so many pics that I can't get them online all at one time. So I will keep updating this until I get them all done.

Well the day started in Bladen county. I stopped by Jones Lake located in Bladen Lakes State Forest. Bladen Lakes are a group of lakes made up of giant Carolina Bays. Carolina Bays are oval shaped depressions that occur from New Jersey to Florida. They are all aligned in the same direction. This is better seen from the air.

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They range in size between a few miles across to just a few feet across.

Here is a pic of three Bay lakes, Smallest to largest they are Jones Lake, Saulters lake, and White Lake.
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Every time I'm in NC I stop by a ditch that is near Jones Lake to check for a plant that I once saw there. I believe that I found U. floridana. It was growing in with some U.gibba in a deep ditch. U.floridana has only been found one time in NC. According to Don Schnell's book Peter Taylor found a piece of the plant washed up on the shore of White Lake. As you can see from the above pic White lake is less than 5 miles from Jones lake. I took pics of the plant with a disposable camera, but the pics didn't come out. I went back to take more pics next time I was in NC but it was gone. Every time I have been back to the ditch the plant was not there, only U.gibba.Here are the pics of the U.gibba.

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Unfortunate, the plants wan not there this year either.
When I was leaving I saw the flowers of S.flavas across another ditch. I turned the car around and went back. The flavas were way across a series of wide ditches, at first I thought I wouldn't be able to get to them without getting very muddy.
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I started trying to navigate my way over to the flavas and I found these D.capillaris on a some ground that was sticking up out of the water.
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I was so wrapped up at looking at the sundews, I didn't realize that I was also looking at S.ruba. I have never found any rubras in Bladen county and I didn't expect to see any.
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Here is some U.gibba nearby
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I Finally made it over to the flavas.
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Then I had to figure out how I was going to get back to the car without getting muddy. I got back only a little muddy.
I decided to go to the ranger office and see if they knew the S.rubras were there. I showed them the pics and they made a note of them and said they would check them out for themselves. They also told me that a few years ago they caught some guys trying to poach those flavas.
Up next, I'll have pics of some vft's, pings, sundews, and pitcher plants from Carolina Beach. I'll try to get them posted tonight.
 
The nature of the Carolina Bays was basically unknown until people started flying over them.  Before that, people didn't recognize the relationship between the scattered low areas.  My North Carolina trained Geomorphology professor loved them.  Their origin was and probably still is unknown, but I think a comet is the current preferred mechanism.  Oh, cool plants too.
 
I wonder if the Lakes were made by metors. Anyway Ozzy you are so lucky to have been in NC for a while. Hope I get to visit for a few days (next time) near Carolina Beach State Park. Those flava flwoers sure look like the S. flava rugelii flowers I saw all over Apalachicola.
 
Tre, if you go sometime after June, I can show you those plants and way more.
Carolina Bays are very interesting when you start reading about them. The leading theroy right now is that the earth passed through the tail of a comet. Since comets are made of ice particles, there will be now material left over after they have crashed into the earth but water. If it was a meteor, there would be some material from it left over. No material from space has ever been found in a carolina bay. Another theroy is that when the area was cover by the Atlantic ocean, ocena currents created the bays.
 
Alright But I cannot promise I can go this year.
 
Well, I plan to be there at least the next 50 years, so let me know.
 
We left Jones Lake and headed to Wilmington to go to Cape Fear Serpenterium. You can read about that here.

After we left there we went to Carolina Beach State Park. CBSP has many different trails, the best of course is their Flytrap Trail. To find the best plants you have to get off the trail.
The first thing I found was D.intermedias, they were everywhere.
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I turned down another trail and saw a bunch of purple flowers.
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I'm not an expert with pings so it took me a couple of seconds to realize what they were. P. carulea.
You can also see some D.capillaris growing with them.
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Then I found the vft's, and as I saw one I started seeing them everywhere.
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I spent quite a bit of time looking for S.flavas or any other pitcher plant but I couldn't find any. I thought they would be the easiest to find, but I couldn't find them anywhere. I found this bladderwort while I was looking for some sarrs. I think it's either U.juncea or cornuta.
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I also came to an area that was sectioned off with caution tape.
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  • #10
I looked around to figure out if I could figure out why the caution tape was there. I could see there was some work being done around the area. There was trees that were cut down, and in the process of being cut up. So I figured that they must be protecting something inside the tape from the work being done. After looking for a while I finally found some vft's inside. From there I walked toward a main trail. When I reached the trail I saw a sigh facing the other way. When I got to the sign I read it and it said "Trail closed to protect fragile habitat" Opps! LOL
I stared walking back toward the entrance and I saw a ranger headed our way. I went up to her and asked her where the pitcher plants were. She told me there was only two pitcher plants there and if you didn't know where they were you'd never find them. I followed her to where they were. They were near where the caution tape was. There was one S.flava and one S.purpurea.

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We talked for awhile and I found out that she use to be a ranger in Bladen County. I asked her if she know where some vft's are in Bladen. She told me where to look. I have never found them in Bladen county and it's one of my goals to find them there. So when I get back to NC, I plan to find them.

We left Carolina Beach and headed towards Ft. Fisher. I had heard that there are some vft's growing on a nature trail at the Ft.Fisher aquarium. We got there right at closing time. So I didn't think it was worth it to pay for admission to the aquarium for just a few minutes. So we headed towards the Green Swamp. I have to upload the rest of the pics. I have a 200 pic limit from my pic hoster and I have exactly 200 pics on it right now. I guess I'll have to upgrade to the 350 package
 
  • #11
Well Ozzy if you saw anyone else with a good camera my bet is they were a ranger also. Well at least for the 40 minutes I got to stay on "Flytrap Trail" their were three of 'em. I think Pitcherplant trail near (what's the name of the pond?) is supposed to have a bunch. I can't vouch for that though.
Your Utric is U. subulata. Keep those photo comming
 
  • #12
I would think that meteors would leave circular craters not oval depressions.
...unless they were coming from the side... but then why aren't lunar craters oval too?
 
  • #13
Ok here are the last of the pics.

We to get to Southport from Ft. Fisher, you have to take a ferry. While we were waiting for the ferry, I told my wife to to throw a pretzel to the seagulls. I knew what would happen. As soon as she did they all surrounded the car. We feed them the whole time we waited. They are so use to being feed that they will take food from your hand. I opened the sunroof and they would fly right down to the edge of the sunroof. Suddenly I thought of some bad things that could happen with the birds flying right over. So I closed the sunroof. Thirty seconds later a bad thing splattered on the sunroof right over my wife's head. I laughed, and told her I wished I didn't close the sunroof. She told me that if it had got in her hair I would have been sorry, and I'm know she would be right.
I have a movie of a gull swooping down and getting a pretzel from her hand. If somebody wants to see it, I'll email it to them. I also got pics.

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Well we took the ferry to Southport and headed to the Green Swamp. On the way I saw the flowers of S.flava in a ditch. I turned around. Here's what I found.
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  • #14
We got to the Green Swamp with only a few minutes of sunlight left.
I turned down a logging road and I saw a clear area, so I stopped the car jumped a huge ditch. I saw some flowers sticking up and I just knew I had found either some pings or bladderworts. I got closer and this is what they were.

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I was told in the "Identify that Plant" forum that it's Viola Lanceolata. I was really disappointed when I saw that they were not cp's but they led me straight to a lot of D.capillaris and some intermedias, or either a hybrid of the two.
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I also found a bladderwort, I'm not sure what it is. I ID'ed it at the time but I forgot what it was, and I can't tell from the pic because it's really blurry. The sun was shining right on the screen of the cam and I couldn't tell if I got a clear shot or not and my batteries were getting weak.

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  • #15
Well I thought I had gotten enough pics so I decided to head for home. Just after getting back on the highway I saw a ditch that was filled with bladderworts. I was lucky to see this because it was almost dark. This turned out to be one of my biggest finds of the day.
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After I walked up to the ditch, I saw that they were U.inflata.

Here are the roots and floats.
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Here are the floats.
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and here are the roots.
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You can tell from those pics how dark it was getting.

Well that was my trip. You can expect many more in the next few years, because next month I am going back home, and all my free time will be spend looking for plants and reptiles.
 
  • #16
sweet!
one thing though... you need to double check your spelling and grammar
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oh... and technically bladderworts don't have roots lol
 
  • #17
Luis, I ain't no proper person, but I do need to proof read, which I rarely do.
 
  • #18
very nice! I wish I coulda come, but this summer I might get to go bogging with brooks! Hopefully, I might be able to see the wilkerson bog and meet Mrs. Wilkerson
 
  • #19
W O W. I can't imagine seeing such sights!! I REALLY enjoyed that. Thanks for such a detailed trip.
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That was wonderful!
 
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