May 2023 at the Big Thicket Pitcher Plant Bog
In May, we spent a weekend around the Big Thicket, the same weekend we went to the Solo Tract. There will be several posts from this weekend as I divvy them up and share here. On Saturday evening before we went to the Watson Preserve to do some mothing, we stopped in at the Big Thicket Pitcher Plant bog to eat dinner, drive-thru Whataburger. I don’t think I had been to the bog in the early evening before so it was nice seeing it in a different light, literally.
Sarracenia alata, yellow pitcher plants in the Big Thicket’s Pitcher Plant Bog
Rhexia lutea, yellow meadow beauty–my favorite of the Rhexia species and the only yellow one!
One of my favorites, Rhynchospora latifolia, sandswamp whitetop sedge.
Echinacea sanguinea near the parking lot.
We drove the backroads to get to Watson, driving slowly to see what we could find and we found this lovely milkweed, Asclepias tuberosa ssp. interior, tucked into the side of the road. It looks like Weakley changed this in his recent Flora of the SE US to Asclepias tuberosa var. cordata, reverting back to an older name when it was originally described. All of the name changes from his work have been frustrating and only some have caught on. iNaturalist hasn’t caught this one yet.
Overall it was a good, short trip. I definitely recommend visiting in the evening if you don’t normally go during that time period. A lot of different sights and sounds to experience.
4 Comments
shoreacres
I’m with you on the yellow Rhexia — it’s my favorite, too. Is that whitetop sedge the really tall one? I think I remember seeing some at that same trail, and thinking that it was SO much larger than what I see in the ditches around here.
Tina
Lovely set of photos. The only flower that I’m at all familiar with is the milkweed, though I grow one of its cousins, A. tuberosa. The sedge is very elegent. How tall is it?
sonnia hill
Alwyas some cool find in that area. Lighting is marvelous on yor beautiful photos.
sonnia hill
Could not edit: Always some cool finds in that area. Lighting is marvelous in your beautiful photos.