Monday, June 29, 2009

Botanizing the Pine Barrens

M and I visited the Pine Barrens in Wharton State Forest in Central NJ recently and we saw carnivorous plants! Neither of us had ever actually seen carnivorous plants in the wild before so we spent a long time looking at them and taking pictures.

Here's a sundew growing by the side of a stream:




***Gotcha!***

And a pitcher plant growing about a foot away:



Look at those red veins and downward-pointed hairs. The texture is like the soft down of a baby's head.



There were also a huge number of highbush blueberry, mountain laurel, pines, oaks, wintergreen and teaberry. And ticks. Lots and lots of ticks. The trail we hiked on is called the Batona trail (BAck TO NAture). It's a 50 mile trail through the Pine Barrens and southern New Jersey. It's well marked but very narrow, so narrow that we were brushing past bushes most of the time, hence the ticks. But I definitely plan on going back in July when the blubes are ripe!

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