Page 1 of 1

Not sure where this should go...

Posted: October 23rd, 2011, 2:39 pm
by Natalie McNear
It eats insects and it looks like a snake! Kind of like herping, right? On Thursday I drove up to the Sierras in search of one of the coolest plants in the US, the Cobra Lily or California Pitcher Plant (Darlingtonia californica). They are native to the northern Sierras and coastal Oregon, and tend to be found only on cold seeps in serpentine rock formations. Their closest relatives are the pitcher plants in the genus Sarracenia, which are only found in the eastern US and Canada.

Their tongues produce lots of nectar in the growing season to attract insect prey - the insects crawl up the tongue into the puffed head of the leaf, where escape is almost impossible due to a rim around the entrance. The insects then wander around until they lose their footing and fall down the back of the pitcher and drown. Unlike many carnivorous plants, Cobra Lilies apparently don't produce digestive enzymes in their fluid pools. Instead, the dead prey is broken down by bacteria and specialized endosymbiotic midge larvae, and the nutrients are absorbed the the plant.

They're pretty awesome.

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Re: Not sure where this should go...

Posted: October 23rd, 2011, 4:00 pm
by Warren
Love this post, Natalie! Thank you! :)

Re: Not sure where this should go...

Posted: October 23rd, 2011, 4:18 pm
by Jason B
Yup, that's pretty cool. Thanks for the natural history lesson.

Re: Not sure where this should go...

Posted: October 24th, 2011, 7:34 pm
by Natalie McNear
Thanks for the comments. I find myself wanting to go back up there and find another population, it's pretty much like herping. :lol:

Re: Not sure where this should go...

Posted: October 24th, 2011, 11:29 pm
by Rags
Interesting stuff. Never heard of these before.

Thanks for posting.

Re: Not sure where this should go...

Posted: October 24th, 2011, 11:32 pm
by mikemike
Botaning is not herping and I totally made that word up...

Kinda cool I guesssss. Hahahaha

Re: Not sure where this should go...

Posted: October 25th, 2011, 7:56 am
by Rags
It's in the Oxford-English Dictionary;

Botaning Def. To actively search for Botans. To Botan.

Re: Not sure where this should go...

Posted: October 25th, 2011, 4:39 pm
by Natalie McNear
LOL.

Originally I was going to refer to it as "planting" (to go along with herping, bugging, and birding), but I guess most people would just mistake that for gardening. Perhaps the act of looking for pitcher plants (which are the most common carnivorous plant design) could be called "pitchering", but no one would have a clue what that would be... Perhaps for the better? Most Sarracenid pitcher plants native to the US are endangered.

Re: Not sure where this should go...

Posted: October 25th, 2011, 6:47 pm
by mikemike
Well, so much for that idea. I guess I'm not clever after all. Haha

Re: Not sure where this should go...

Posted: October 26th, 2011, 9:00 pm
by ADCIII
Pitchering in the title probably would have gotten me to read it three days ago. Fabulous post and very interesting, Art

Re: Not sure where this should go...

Posted: October 27th, 2011, 4:26 am
by Gordon C. Snelling
Botanizing is the term most commonly used for searching for plants. Neat post. I haven't seen these in the field in a long time.