Welcome to Girl Scout Troop 124's Virtual Nature Trail!
The trail features: Carnivorous Plants (13 species), Wild Orchids (2 species), Endangered Species (2 species), Wild Iris (1 species)
Hazards of the Hobby: An alligator was found near one of the nature trails. He was captured and relocated.
Click on images to make them larger.
Bolivia, N.C. is Venus' Flytrap capital of the world. These rare and beautiful plants are found growing naturally only within a fifty mile radius of Bolivia. The girls in troop 124 are lucky to be able to study Venus' Flytraps and other carnivorous plants in their natural habitat.
Tina's Cadette Silver Award Project involved developing nature trails at a Girl Scout camp so that everyone would be able to see the carnivorous plants without stepping on them.
Dionaea muscipula: Venus' Flytrap Flytraps in bloom Flytrap blooms
The Venus' Flytrap grows low to the ground and can be difficult to find in overgrown areas. The best time to look for flytraps is in May and June when they are in bloom. During the winter, flytraps may become dormant if exposed to low temperatures for a prolonged period of time. Most large, healthy plants do not become dormant in this area. The traps will die when temperatures go below freezing, but new ones start to grow right away. Flytraps may also become dormant during an unusually dry summer.
Flytraps growing through moss. Traps close-up.
Hooded Pitcher Plants:Sarracenia minor
Trumpets:Sarracenia flava
Pitcher plants are easier to find because they grow much taller than Venus' flytraps, but pitchers are always dormant during the winter. The orange flower is an orange milkwort (Polygala lutea). Tree frogs can often be seen hiding in Pitchers waiting for insects. Sometimes they meet with an untimely demise when they slide in and can't get back out.
Sweet Pitcher Plant: Sarracenia rubra
Purple Pitcher Plant:Sarracenia purpurea and Purple Pitcher plant with Parrot Pitchers: Sarracenia psittacina
Southern Pitcher Plant:Sarracenia purpurea venosa
The Southern Pitcher is a subspecies of the Purple Pitcher(a.k.a. Northern Pitcher) which is more common further north.
Southern Pitcher Plants in bloom.
Sarracenia purpurea having a spider for lunch.
Violet Butterwort: Pinguicula caerulea Violet Butterwort Blooms
Butterworts are extremely difficult to find when their not in bloom. Their leaves are almost flat against the ground. Butterwort leaves are sticky. Insects are that get stuck are digested by the plant.
Though commonly called violet butterworts, caerulea means dark blue. It refers to the innermost whorl of petals on the flower. The color of the petals actually varies from white to deep violet.
Sundews: Drosera capillaris, pink sundew Drosera intermedia with hatpins
Drosera brevifolia, the short- leaved sundew, sticky droplets secreted by the plant cling to its leaf hairs and have the appearance of dew.
Horned Bladderworts: Utricularia cornuta
Tiny insects are sucked into the subterranean leaves of the bladderwort.
Cleistes divaricata: Rosebud Orchid, Pogonia ophioglossoides: Rose- Crested Orchid
These two plants are wild orchids. They are not carnivorous but we like them anyway.
All photos taken by Jean Heustess, Christina Hughes, and Debra Hughes at Camp Pretty Pond in Boiling Spring Lakes, N.C. except the Hooded Pitcher Plants. The hooded pitchers are located at a site that has been decimated by poachers on several occasions so I won't disclose their location. If you are going to look for carnivorous plants in the wild, take a camera and leave the shovel at home. Venus' Flytrap and all Sarracenia species are protected under state law in North Carolina. Be sure to look up once in a while, there are other things to see besides plants!
Bald Eagle: Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Red- Cockaded Woodpecker: Picoides borealis
Click here to see photos
taken at the North Carolina Botanical Garden. The pitcher plants were all in bloom.
See the Tropical Pitcher Plants in the
Butterfly House at the Museum of Life & Science in Durham
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here for more info about any of the plants pictured on this page.
Visit our Carnivorous Plant Nightmare Page if you dare!
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This page was last revised on 04/01/01. It will be updated as more photos become available.
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