South Central US

[Anoxos]

The weather channel has been giving a good bit of airtime to the conditions in the South-Central US (Texas, Oklahoma, etc). Seems temps there are in the 70-80's (much warmer than usual) and VERY dry. Wildfire-dry if folks hadn't heard.

Makes me wonder how the local wild CP population down that a ways is doing, especially the Sarrs, that are probably not having a very good dormancy...

Anyone live down there that could comment on the situation?

 

[Drosera36]

It's been rather warm up here in the north here, too. It's around 40* F today, and the past few weeks have been in the upper 30's. Most of the snow melted, but some came back. I'm also worried 'bout the pitcher plants and the dews up here. But mine in the garage appears to be pretty dormant.

-Ben

 

[Alvin Meister]

Sarras can survive dormancy in very dry conditions, so its definitely best that it's like that now. Wildfires at this time of year would also be perfect for them.

I thought the last year or so had been very wet and certainly much better than the preceeding few years.

 

[glider14]

AHH here in kentucky the lowest temps in december and january were never below 40*!!!!! it makes me so mad

i couldnt even imagine what south of us would be like...

 

[Est]

Sarracenia are actually helped by fires in many cases, no? AFAIK, there are many sites which receive periodic fires and that Sarracenia are better for it.

 

[Anoxos]

I didn't realize periodic burning was good for the Sarrs. It was mainly the excesively warm temps I was thinking of though. Mine look pretty darned dormant here, and we've had temperature shifts from 30-60F so I guess they're fine. *shrug* Be interesting to hear how the wild ones are doing come spring.

Glider14, where in Kentucky are you at? I'm in SW Indiana, Evansville.

 

[Alvin Meister]

Yep, fire is very helpful to sarracenias. Where fires are discouraged, vegetation just increases and overwhelms the sun loving sarras.
It's a misconception that fires are bad - the only times they are bad are if you have your home in the way. A lot of things in nature rely on fires.

 

[Houstonherp]

The areas in Texas that have been hit by wildfires - mostly in the panhandle along the OK border - are nowhere near the areas in EAST Texas where most Sarracenia bogs are located. I would say that last year's hurricanes (Katrina, and especially Rita) were of more importance to Texas' Sarracenia habitat than any of these more recent occurrences. In fact, FEMA does not expect to be done with their hurricane cleanup work in Hardin, Tyler and Jasper counties for several weeks.

As far as the hurricanes go, this can be good and bad. Good, because the downed trees could open up the canopy and allow more light to reach the (understory) CPs. But also bad, because this additional light can also allow woody species to overrun the CPs.

All my outdoor Sarrs are not sure what to make of this hot/cold/hot weather; it was near 80 here in Houston Monday, and now it's almost freezing! Granted it's 4:30 a.m., but that's still a crazy temperature change...

Mike