Chicxulub's Nature Preserve (carnivorous plants, orchids, etc)

[Chicxulub]

Hey everyone!

About a year and a half ago I bought a huge tract of land a few miles east of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, right on the FL/GA line. The property consists of a very small xeric (dry) area, is mostly a mesic-hygric ecotone in a pine flatwoods prarie habitat. A mesic-hygric ecotone is the area where the elevation changes from partly saturated but well drained to mostly saturated and almost always wet. This is the ideal area for high biological diversity in the Southeastern Coastal Plain, in particular for carnivorous plants.

Thus far, I've only got a few percent of the property cleared (which still constitutes several acres), but I've found all kinds of cool stuff. Mesic flatwoods like this are supposed to be burned (or encounter some sort of disturbance to mimic the effect of fire) every 1-5 years. This property was logged out to remove the pines about ten years ago, and hasn't been mowed or burned since. The ecosystem is distressed and will require quite a bit of work, but all the cool native plants that are supposed to be here are still present. There are several rare, threatened or endangered species present, some of which are poorly documented or thought not to exist in this part of the country.

The skyline:

 

[Chicxulub]

Anyway, on to a partial inventory. This only covers a handful of the more interesting plants confirmed to be present. There are likely quite a few other plants present that I just haven't encountered yet. I don't have pics of all of these readily available.

To start, we'll cover the carnivorous plants.

Pitcher plants:
Yellow pitcher plant, Sarracenia flava




Giant hooded pitcher plant, Sarracenia minor var okefenokeensis


Hooded pitcher plant, Sarracenia minor var minor



Parrot pitcher plant, Sarracenia pscittacina




Parrot x Hooded hybrid, Sarracenia x formosa (this one is more S. formosa x S. pscittacina than a "pure" S. formosa however)



Sundews:
Spoonleaf sundew, Drosera intermedia


Pink sundew, Drosera capillaris


Broadleaf sundew, Drosera brevifolia


Longarm sundew, Drosera cf. "long arm" (taxonomy disputed)


Butterworts:
First up a pic of the rosette; they all look basically the same when not in flower-


Yellowflower butterwort, Pinguicula lutea


Blueflower butterwort, Pinguicula caerulea


Dwarf butterwort, Pinguicula pumila



Bladderworts:
Utricularia subulata
Utricularia juncea
Utricularia cornuta

They're not really photogenic, so no pics

 

[Chicxulub]

Now on to a few of the cooler non-carnivorous plants...

Orchids:
White fringed orchid, Platanthera conspicua


Yellow fringed orchid, Platanthera ciliaris


Hybrid fringed orchid, Platanthera x lueri (cross of the above two)


White reinorchid, Platanthera nivea
Grass pink, Calopogon tuberosa
Rose pogonia, Pogonia ophioglossoides
Water spider orchid, Habenaria repens


Lilies:
Pine lily, Lilium catesbaei


Rain lily, Zephyranthes atamasca


Others:
Purple honeycomb head, Balduina atropurpurea. The rarest thing on this list, found in only about dozen sites in the entire world.


With the far more common yellowcomb head (B. uniflora)


Night flowering petunia, Ruellia noctiflora. Extremely endangered, was thought to be completely extinct in the NE Florida/SE Georgia region as it hadn't been spotted since 1967, but was found in a handful of sites (to include this one) in the 2010s.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Awesome! I have become more interested in plants lately, amazing to see the diversity we have here in the U.S. Especially that pitcher plant, and the hybrid orchid, stand out to me. Good luck working thru all that land!

 

[Chicxulub]

Awesome! I have become more interested in plants lately, amazing to see the diversity we have here in the U.S. Especially that pitcher plant, and the hybrid orchid, stand out to me. Good luck working thru all that land!

Thank you! This is a labor of love for me. I feel privileged to be able to own and eventually live on such an amazing plot of land

 

[Matteus]

Wow. Such a beautiful place you have. Are you planning to make it available for people to view once you have it in the order you are wanting?

 

[Chicxulub]

Wow. Such a beautiful place you have. Are you planning to make it available for people to view once you have it in the order you are wanting?

Eventually, yes.

 

[Steve_C]

Very cool, stuff like that is right up my alley. Outside of fishing & aquariums my other main enjoyment is bonsai/gardening so I always like to see pictures of plant species we don't have in this part of the country up here.

Being on the Fl/Ga line do you have any Bougainvillea on your land? If so those can make some excellent bonsai if you weren't aware of that and ever wanted to try your hand at it. I've got a couple myself here and really like that species.

 

[Chicxulub]

Very cool, stuff like that is right up my alley. Outside of fishing & aquariums my other main enjoyment is bonsai/gardening so I always like to see pictures of plant species we don't have in this part of the country up here.

Being on the Fl/Ga line do you have any Bougainvillea on your land? If so those can make some excellent bonsai if you weren't aware of that and ever wanted to try your hand at it. I've got a couple myself here and really like that species.

Bougainvillea isn't a native to this part of the world, so I'm fortunate to not have any present. They're from SE Asia and Indonesia.

 

[Steve_C]

I've always thought they were native to Florida. I have a friend that lives in the upper part around Gainsville area and he says they are all over around him. Must be just people planting them that he is talking about then. I know he removed one from his mother in laws house last year that was huge, I would have loved to have it myself for my collection of bonsai lol