RHH's photos with the keyword: muskeg

Muskeg along the Auke Nu trail in Tongass National Forest, Alaska, the photo taken on a 2015 trip to Alaska. We had stopped at Juneau for ferry repairs and spent the time hiking.

Here's another post for the day, since I may not get a chance to get back on line. These are more of the carnivorous plants described in my last post, non-native but well-established in a muskeg or floating bog south of where we live. These are the White Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia leucophylla. These are not as well-established as the others but nevertheless have their own niche in the bog. The pitchers which are lined with downward pointing hairs are half-filled with liquid and when an insect ventures in and falls in the liquid, it is unable to get back out and is digested by the plant. For many of the insects a visit to these plants is a form of double jeopardy as well since there are often spiders lurking under the lids of the plants and waiting for unwary visitors.

They look so bright and cheerful, don't they? Well, don't be fooled by them because they eat meat and they may even grab you as you walk by. This is my post, or one of them, for Halloween, and very appropriate, I thought, because these are carnivorous plants, the Yellow Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia flava, with several pitchers or specialized leaves and a flower. I've posted pictures from this place before, but we make a trip there every year to see these amazing plants. They grow in a muskeg or floating bog on a lake south of us and there are five species of carnivorous plants growing there, one native and three non-native, and all very well established and thriving, especially these Yellow Pitchers and also the Purple Pitcher Plant. No one seems to know who planted them in the bog or when, and there are, of course, issues with introducing non-native plants into an area, though this bog is remote enough and isolated enough that there is very little chance that they are going to spread elsewhere. Nor do they seem to be competing with the native plants or crowding them out. We went to the bog with a friend and found, as usual that access to the floating mat of vegetation on which these plants grow to be rather difficult - a a kind of balancing act over old sunken logs and floating boards with fairly deep water all around. In the end we all fell in and were wet to our waists and though we wore boots had to pour the water out of our boots when we arrived back at the car.

This was photographed at Summer Lake, the lake where all the carnivorous plants grow. It was the only other thing we found in bloom on our last visit and we found only this last lonely flower spike. After all the carnivorous plants, however, everything begins to look sinister and one wonders if there are secrets hidden even in these lovely flowers. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-more-vi...

This and the previous picture were taken on the edge of the muskeg or floating bog on Summer Lake in Skagit County, Washington, with the water of the lake as a background. The deadly beauty of these plants was evident when we looked inside the pitchers - not much water but the lower part of every pitcher was filled with dead insects. There are three species of Pitcher Plants growing in the bog. This is the Yellow Pitcher Plant, Sarracenia flava. The other two are the White and Purple Pitcher Plants. More pictures of the lake, of its floating island and of these plants can be found on my blog: ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-more-vi... .

Beautiful lake, you say? Quiet and peaceful scene? What you don't know is that at every corner of this lake there lurk creatures of your worst nightmares, creatures who eat other creatures alive, swallowing them whole. Scotland has its Loch Ness and its monster, but Washington has Summer Lake and the Halloween creatures that hide there. This is a place you would not want to visit at night nor on Halloween, for there are found flesh-eating plants, and who knows what they will do if you go alone or in the dark. On a more serious note, this is the east side of Summer Lake, the place where someone has introduced various species of carnivorous plants. The picture shows part of the muskeg or floating bog on the right. Standing where this picture was taken one is standing on a mat of floating vegetation that moves underfoot and that is the home of these carnivorous plants. Interestingly, the lake is also the home of a man-made floating island that has trees growing on it that are at least 20 years old. More details and pictures of this unique place can be found on the following blog entries. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-more-vi... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/little-bog-... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/06/little-bog-...

"I felt that something horrible was near from the moment that my foot first touched the water" - Frodo in "The Fellowship of the Ring." Taken at the north end of Summer Lake early in the morning. There were no carnivorous plants found at this end of the lake but they were nearby! ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-more-vi... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/10/little-bog-... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/06/little-bog-...

This is another photo taken at Summer Lake in Skagit County, Washington, where someone has planted different non-native species of carnivorous plants that have become naturalized there. We go every year to see these, but usually go in October. Since we were earlier this year we were able to see these flowers still in bloom. The Purple Pitcher Plant is Sarracenia purpurea and is native to the eastern United States. The plant is shown below. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/09/carnivorous...

This is another photo from the muskeg or quaking bog at Summer Lake in Skagit County, Washington. As noted before, someone, a long time ago, introduced a number of species of carnivorous plants into this bog and they have become established there. We usually go to see them in the autumn when the pitcher plants are in flower. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/09/carnivorous...