Veinless Sarracenia rosea in Escambia county Fl

[sflynn]

Hello, while exploring a bog that i discovered in Escambia Co, Fl, i found a interesting form of Sarracenia rosea. These plants appeared to be completely veinless, in fact the only pigment on the plants was a dark purple neck band. All the S. rosea at this site( about five or six clumps ) appeared to have the same amount of pigmentation(or lack of pigmentation!). Barry Rices FAQ states that similar plants have been found in Jackson Co. FL. Other CP's at this site include:

S. leucophylla
S. psittanica
D. capillaris
D. tracyi
and probably D. brevifolia and D. intermedia

The site is now being threatened by rapidly growing shrubby overgrowth which is shading out the plants. I am doing what i can to find out about the owners of this site so i might be able to attempt restoration. i plan on going back to the site soon, to study the plants more closely and take pictures.

Hopefully i will add pictures of the plants soon.

[Jason Ksepka]

I wish that I was able to come help you. live in NJ and when I am in the Pinelands, as well as in the northern part of the state I often do small scale site improvements. What I am able to accomplish over the long-term is obviously limited because I am just 1 person. But in the short-term, I am able to cut away encroaching growth and it often stimulates struggling plants to grow very vigorously for the next couple of years. This period of growth can allow them to replenish their rhizome to some degree, which will potentially allow them to live a bit longer in less than ideal conditions. Then, if better management, or a natural disturbance occurs, they are still alive and in place to grow. Recently, I have started carrying very good pruning saws, shears, and a dabber bottle of round-up with blue dye in it. I hate using herbicide, but it is a useful tool that makes the small amount of impact I do last much longer. I would never use herbicide as a spray application to a bog. This bottle is the type that bingo players use to mark their boards. The blue dye is added so you can see where you have already worked.
The advantage to this, over just cutting is that you can quickly treat just the woodies that you are already cutting, and they won't return until natural recruitment allows for new encroachment. Importantly, this method does not require large amounts of herbicide, and you are carefully treating only the plants that you want to kill. Pruning others and allowing them to regrow as appropriate. There is some risk of non-target damage through root contact between plants, and as always, there are complicated risks that we are not fully aware of. But right now it is a very useful tool for someone like myself who is trying to preserve specific sites or even individual plants.

A few very important things to consider....
1. Permission to do this work is essential. The legal trouble you face, and the potential to inadvertently lead to a worse management situation require that things be done ethically. Also, by doing so, you may find unexpected help, hopefully, like me, from people more knowledgeable than yourself. These people have helped me learn to make more informed decisions and avoid some potential problems.
2. Consider that we live in a very different and very invaded world now. 50 years, or even 10 years ago, if I were to cut a tree or a swath of inkberry holly away from a shaded sphagnum bog, much of the resulting growth would be healthy native plants, which id of course the goal. But now we have a long list of recently established, as well as long-term invasive species. I know that in the northeast, Japanese stiltgrass is a truly scary new threat, as is mile-a-minute vine, and sadly many others. In the southeast, the species are different, such as climbing fern, but the concerns are the same. Before you make a cut, please carefully consider if you may have unintentionally tracked in seeds on your boots, or if there is an adjacent population of these invasive species that are just waiting for less competition to move in to a site. In many cases, the native plants can live quite a long time in shady conditions, but will be killed much more quickly by a mass of stiltgrass or climbing fern that quickly, and completely covers them.

There are many things to consider with management, and it should be done correctly. But importantly, IT SHOULD BE DONE WHERE NEEDED. I have been lucky to have had very good results and have learned a lot with the small-scale management that I have done so far. It encourages me in times when the degradation of our environment can be overwhelming, and a lack of management resources is pervasive.

I do not often remember to come to this forum nearly as often as I would like. BU I would love to see this conversation go further if anyone is interested. If I disappear, my apologies, please feel free to email me at [e-mail] with any concerns, comments, or questions.