RHH's photos with the keyword: darlingtonia

A field or bog of Cobra Lilies along the Illinois River in Oregon.

This is a Cobra Lily, a carnivorous plant that grows in a very limited area in southwestern Oregon and northwestern California. It prefers serpentine seeps and bogs and often grows in huge numbers. This is the modified leaf that actually captures the insects. It is a hollow tube with an opening behind the fangs through which an insect enters. The translucent "windows" at the top of the tube confuse the insect which cannot find its way out and eventually falls to the bottom of the tube where it is absorbed by the plant. Oneof the insets show a seed pod and I've included as an inset an older photo of the flower. These were photographed in a bog in Oregon.

This is the seedpod of a Cobra Lily, a carnivorous plant that grows in serpentine bogs in southwestern Oregon and northwestern California.

Photographed in southwestern Oregon, these are the "leaves" of the insect-capturing Cobra Lily.

This is the flower of the Cobra Lily, Darlingtonia californica, a carnivorous plant that grows in the serpentine areas of southwesterern Oregon and northwestern California. We found these Cobra Lilies in flower but the plants were in very poor condition, though we would see them again.

As noted in a previous post, these unusual carnivorous plants grow only in serpentine soils, soils that are full of heavy metals like nickel and cadmium from the underlying serpentine rocks. We found them in northern California and again in southern Oregon, the only places they grow wild. In all the areas they are are protected and should not be removed, especially because they can be purchased easily enough from nurseries that propagate them. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/08/orchid-hunting-in-siskiyous.html

The Cobra Lily is named for the resemblance of its leaves to the head and fangs of a cobra. It is a carnivorous plant that grows only in serpentine areas of northern California and southern Oregon, i.e., areas that have high concentrations of heavy metals, nickel, cadmium, etc., due to the underlying serpentine rock. The plant itself, shown below has an opening below the "hood" which insects enter and attracted to the little translucent windows in the plant, are unable to find their way out again. These were photographed in several different areas where the plants are protected. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/08/orchid-hunting-in-siskiyous.html

The Cobra Lily, Darlingtonia californica, is a carnivorous plant named for the fancied resemblance of its leaves to a cobra's head and fangs. Behind the fangs is an opening into which the insect ventures and then finds itself unable to escape since the top is covered with little transparent windows which attract the insect's attention. Eventually the insect falls to the bottom of the hollow tubular leaf where it is digested, providing essential nutrients to the plant, which grows in bogs, poor in necessary nutrients. The plant has a very limited range, as the species name suggests, and is protected throughout its range. It is found in northern California and southern Oregon and only there in serpentine areas (serpentine is a green and black rock full of heavy metals, and areas where it is found support unique plant populations). We found these in quite a few areas in the Siskiyou Mountains where they grow in seeps and bogs, often in huge numbers. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/08/orchid-hunt...