Here they are!
Aerial views from GoogleEarth had prepared me for a dry, sandy lake bed. So
I was surprised to stop our cars on the shore of a broad, shimmering blue
lake!
After exchanging quick greetings, Jim and Randy noted that they were also
surprised at how much water was in the lake. Florida had been getting a great
deal of rain lately!
Jim was the first of our group to have found this site, years ago, so glowing with a
father's pride, he took me and Beth to the water's edge and showed us the edge of a huge population of Floridian
Drosera filiformis.
Now, this is where this interesting story gets even more intriguing.
As rare as Drosera filiformis is in Florida, it is even rarer for it to
occur with Drosera tracyi. Indeed, I had encountered only one herbarium record noting the
two plants growing together, but that document stated that no hybrids had been observed.
But that was another site. Jim and Randy had brought us to this lake because
they had independently found areas where both plants occurred---furthermore,
they had both found hybrids.
This was exciting! But now the lake was in the way, so wading was involved.
Mostly the water only got up to our chests, but at one point I found myself
swimming. This is not too easy to do in running shoes, especially when both
of your hands are occupied with holding a tripod and a bum-pack filled with
electronics over your head.
You can see a video that Randy took of our antics!
