The Trip:
Mid-summer travels took me to Idaho, which provided an
opportunity for explorations of fens in the fabulous potato state.
Conversations with Idaho scientists revealed a number of extremely promising locations where I might find sundews and
bladderworts. In particular, I could seek Drosera anglica,
Utricularia macrorhiza,
U. minor, and U. intermedia. Of course, I would keep my eyes open for
previously-unreported entities such
as D. rotundifolia, D. × obovata,
U. gibba, U. ochroleuca, or whatever might
else come my way, although none were reported to be in my area of exploration..
This trip also fit nicely into my research on U. intermedia and
U. ochroleuca in California. I have
populations of plants that seem intermediate between these two species, and I have spent many hours trying
to understand exactly what I am seeing in the field. Non-Californian plants, I hoped, might throw some perspective onto
the situation.
I had two Idaho
sites on my itinerary: Warm Lake and Tranquil Basin. It might shock some to see me actually identify these sites by
name, but I cannot envision anyone travelling all the way to these sites to poach carnivorous plants. The aquatic
Utricularia are too prolific to be harmed by minor poachings at these sites, and the
Drosera site
discussed is very remote--poachers (in general, a lazy and slobbish group) are not likely to expend energy to hike so far,
especially when other sites are so much closer and easily desecrated.
Start the photo-essay!
