Dionaea muscipula (Venus Flytrap)
A few of us went to the Green Swamp this morning. As usual, the humidity was a bit oppressive but it was actually cooler than it’s been most years and it wasn’t until we were nearly back to the car that I was starting to feel particularly uncomfortable. The trail goes through long-leaf pine savanna for the most part, but areas of that are separated by pocosins (evergreen shrub bogs). In the past there have been boardwalks through those but this year they were gone. I found out later that the preserve was technically closed, although there were no signs to that effect anywhere that we saw. The reason was that the boardwalks were out, having been destroyed in a wildfire. We managed to get through them and found four of the 14 carnivorous plants known to grow in the swamp. The four we saw were the Venux flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) shown here, along with a few sundews (Drosery species), yellow pitcher plant (Sarracenia flava), and purple pitcher plants (Sarracenia purpurea subsp. venosa). All in all, I’d say it was a successful outing.