Hiking,  Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places

The Sundew Trail | Big Thicket National Preserve

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Rhynchosia sp.
The Sundew Trail was our last stop during our East Texas adventures back over Memorial Day weekend. It seems like it was last weekend and also about three months ago. I don’t recall having hiked the entire Sundew Trail in previous visits but I will say that I think I enjoyed it more than the Pitcher Plant Trail!

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Swamp Darner, Epiaeschna hero
Dragonflies and damselflies are two insects that I am slowly (very) trying to learn a bit better. They aren’t nearly as showy as butterflies but they are just as curious and interesting to watch.

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Forest started going along the boardwalk section of the trails and calling each area by a certain “type”—kind of like he did back in the fall on our backpacking trip to Sam Houston NF. Each area was a “room” back then. On this trip we had Fern World and then White Flower World and moved on to other things as we continued down the boardwalk.

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Swamp Titi, Cyrilla racemiflora
I have to say, every time I see titi I think of our Florida Trail hike through north Florida and the titi swamps up there. Thickets of titi with water in between…yep, a wet adventure!

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Arnoglossum sp.

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More of that gorgeous Yellow Meadowbeauty, Rhexia lutea—seriously want this plant! I wonder how tasty it is to deer?

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A short glimpse of a zebra swallowtail—this was the one that gave us the idea she was laying eggs and to start looking for caterpillars.

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Swamp Rose Mallow, Hibiscus moscheutos

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Golden Miller’s-Maid/colicroot, Aletris aurea

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Some kind of wild allium but I haven’t been able to identify it.

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Round-leaved Boneset, Eupatorium rotundifolium

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Purple Pleatleaf, Alophia drummondii

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Hairy Skullcap, Scutellaria elliptica going to seed.

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Multi-bloom Tephrosia, Tephrosia onobrychoides–shortly after this we had a light sun shower come through for a few minutes, enough to dampen our clothing and offer a slight cool off.

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I think this is another colicroot but I’m not for certain.

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Sanguine Purple Coneflower, Echinacea sanguinea

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Gulf Skullcap, Scutellaria cardiophylla

I’m glad we added in the Sundew Trail to our list of places to visit while over in east Texas. I have one more post from Watson Preserve to share and then that brief trip will be wrapped up here on the blog.

One Comment

  • shoreacres

    I’m wondering if you didn’t find the Neches River rose mallow: Hibiscus dasycalyx. The leaves look right. It’s endemic to TX and found only in that area. Here’s a link. One place that I know it grows is along the boardwalk just below Geraldine Watson’s house at that preserve, and I found it along the sundew trail, too.

    I’m still puzzled by that Tephrosia. The bloom looks like a different plant that I found, but the buds look right. More research is required!

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