Old flower stalks:
Are these plants native? I think so.
Usually, hobbyists who plant out non-natives are lazy and do so right along roads--much like people who dump
old refrigerators or televisions. Presumably, they want a convenient location to watch the impacts of
their "experiments." Also, plant-dumpers usually plant more than one species. But we saw nothing else
obviously non-native--no Dionaea, no Drosera capensis,
Drosera binata, or Utricularia sandersonii.
I had three other Drosera filiformis sites on my list, but I decided to add some variety. I had
heard of a nearby lake with Utricularia floridana, so Brian and I headed there. Meanwhile, Bob
and Jim---who had both gotten about 2 hours of sleep the previous night---headed back towards Tallahassee.
A short drive later, Brian and I were walking the barren shores of the Utricularia floridana
lake. I suspect that it had recently been nuked with an aquatic herbicide
like Sonar---very little of anything alive was in its waters, so we only spent perhaps 45 minutes of exploring side
pockets of vegetation and puddles. Brian noticed a fragment of lavender glass and described
the photo-oxidation of antique glass fragments---another hobby of his.
With several hours of daylight left, we headed further west towards Crestview. We were looking for
Pinguicula primuliflora.
