Sarrcenia alata and the Drought

As you know this year and for the past few years much of the south has been in a drought. Many parts of the south are in an extreme or exceptional drought condition. These areas are home to many many unique plants and animals many of which are endemic to the south eastern United States. One group of these unique species is the Pitcher Plants of the genus Sarracenia. The pitcher plants are a remarkable carnivorous plant which lives in poor sandy acidic soils of the south east and have extraordinary colorful pitcher shaped leaves. All but one specie in the genus live on the coastal plane from Virginia south to Florida and west to east Texas. All of these species have become extremely rare and some critically endangered.

US Drought map for today showing much of the south covered in extreme and exceptional drought. Much of this area is Sarracenia habitat.

I wondered what effect the drought had on the local Sarracenia alata population in Big Thicket National Preserve. Usually the pitcher plants there are always healthy and colorful with pitchers lasting until winter. So we went to the Pticher Plant Trail to pay them a visit.

The effects of the drought were very clear. The Sarracenia alata pitchers were all dry and dead only being green a few inches above the rhizome. Many of the seed pods that were maturing seemed to be dead and dry before the seeds were ready. It was sad...

Here is pitcher that still has a little life surrounded with dead pitchers. There was also a lot of healthy Prairie Blazingstar - Liatris pycnostachya, a late summer/fall blooming wildflower that are more tolerant of dry soil.

I found a few whole pitchers. These were all small, less than 8 inches tall.

There was no sight of any other carnivorous plants that we usually see here such as: Drosera, Pinguicula, and Utricularia. The patches of Sphagnum moss were completely brown and dry. The sandy soil was also bone dry.

Dried up Sphagnum moss

After the pitcher plant trail we went to the Sundew Trail to see how the smaller population of Sarracenia alata was doing over there and hopefully photograph some Blazingstar - Liatris but the Sundew trail was worse than the Pitcher Plant trail.

These plants have endured droughts many times before this and it is part of the natural cycle but one can only wonder how long the drought can last and why is it so severe? Hopefully the rain will come soon and restore this area back to its former beauty.

Just to leave on a bright note: here is one of the few plants that were flowering.

Vernonia texana - Texas Ironweed