Plant poaching

It always sounds a bit weird, but plant poaching does occur. The plants have to be sufficiently rare and desireable to be worth the effort. Things like the ghost orchid of the Everglades and the Venus fly-trap. Venus fly-traps only grow in boggy places near the Carolina coastal area of Wilmington. TPP saw some in Green Swamp, and this report makes it sound like they are none too safe from poaching even though the area is protected from development. Plants that only live in relatively small locales and in fairly restrictive habitats are always the most threatened in the wild. Whenever you consider buying such plants, do give a thought about whether or not the plants were grown ethically and not poached. TPP often asks native plant purveyors where they got their stock. But what a shame if cool little plants like this become extinct in the wild. Too bad there aren't any really big carnivorous plants, think little shop of horrors, that you could feed plant poachers to. TPP will return to this topic shortly as he just acquired a rare locally endemic Magnolia.

Green Swamp - Carnivorous Plants Abound

The intertubes have made this a much smaller world, and a long-time reader figured out that we were vacationing only about 10 miles apart.  As a nice botanical gesture, she recommended that the Phactor visit Green Swamp.  Somehow we did manage to get a couple of hours away from the family mob and have a look-see.  None of the urban sophisticates comprising the rest of our family demonstrated even the least interest in tagging along to a swamp.  Well, it was their loss.  Even without knowing the area or having any guidance the Phactors managed to see sundews by the dozens (2 species it seemed, but haven't checked yet), showing off their glistening and deadly glandular hairs, bladderwort in flower, venus flytraps, and pitcher plants, all of which are "carnivorous" plants, trapping insects or other inverts for purposes of augmenting their nutrient supply.  Nitrogen is generally hard to obtain in these wet acidic environments.  The pitcher plants were past their prime, so see this blog post from our friendly tipster to see them a bit earlier in the season.  Image-wise you'll have to make do with a sundew.  There were also two milkworts, two Rhexias, a yellow-eyed grass (Xyris sp. ?), and lots more in flower. The Carolina coastal region is quite famous for such plants, some of which are endangered because of habitat destruction and human predation.