Sarracenia oreophila O-4-PM
2nd August 2006
Sandhill, Georgia.
Sandhills are large sand deposits from 1 to 25 m deep. They occur in Georgia along the fall line (where the sedimentary rocks of the Upper Coastal Plain meet the Piedmont crystalline rocks
inland) and in the coastal plain by the side of the large streams. Sarracenia oreophila is extremely unlikely to have occurred on the coastal plain, so this particular sandhill
was almost certainly on the fall line (which occupies a horizontal band approximately 20 miles wide through the middle of the map of Georgia).
There is a single dubious record of a plant collected along the fall line, in Taylor county (mid Georgia). Wherry noted (in 1933) a specimen in the New York Botanical Garden Herbarium ,
collected by Neisler
in Taylor county, but when McDaniel went looking for the specimen in 1966, he was unable to locate it.
Recent searches of Taylor County have found no sign of Sarracenia oreophila, though a tall form of S.rubra occurs there. It is very clear, however that the plant pictured
is Sarracenia oreophila.
(The hard information in this account is taken from Schnell, D.E.,'Carnivorous Plants of the United States and Canada.' Second Edition, 2002, Timber Press.)
It is interesting to speculate that this plant derives from a collection made in Taylor County. During the 1960's and 1970's there was very little information about the distribution
of the rarer Sarracenia species available, and dedicated hobbyists were checking through old records and revisiting original locations to search for them. Very few such expeditions
were fully recorded. It is (just) possible that plants were located and collected in Taylor county from a now extinct population.
It remains pure speculation!
6th May 2007
The faint tinge of red on the inner face of the sepals at the base is worth noting.
29th July 2007
7th October 2007
This plant has broad phyllodes without the distinctive spiral curl at the end shown by the two plants assumed to come from the Towns county population.
16th July 2008
5th July 2009
10th June 2010