On my trip yesterday things looked much better than last year thanks to the good amount of rain we've had this spring. It was much more lush overall with many species of wildflowers blooming. The Sarracenia populations had many new leaves but I only saw one flower overall.
Sundew Trail:
The Sundew Trail Sarracenia population seems to have been hit hard by last years drought.
There were no flowers and all of the pitchers were thin, short, and phyllodia like.
A patch of some of the healthier plants along the Sundew Trail. If I didn't know they were growing here I probably wouldn't have seen them.
Pitcher Plant Trail:
The Pitcher Plant Trail S. alata population looked really good.
There was a lot of healthy pitchers!
A nice big and healthy pitcher.
The only S. alata flower I could find.
...So as you can see the Big Thicket populations of Sarracenia alata was negatively impacted by the drought last year but thankfully still survives. Remember: when visiting it is important to never take anything! No collecting leaves, plants, seeds, flowers, etc. By collecting you could be removing plants that could determine the survival of the species. As seen above - these two populations will have almost no seeds produced this year. Hopefully there will be no more droughts in the near future and these Sarracenia alata populations can restore themselves to their previous abundance.
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