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This slope seepage is in a forest clearing, almost at the top of a
300-foot tall hill, and is very similar to site 16F,
although the slope here is steeper and less wet. Being higher,
the breezes are stronger here, but the pitcher plants are protected
from all sides.
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It's April and the Sarracenias have just finished flowering.
The seedpods are pregnant and waiting for the end of the summer to
release thousands of seeds on the sandy slope. Here and there,
a late bloomer. The eyes feast on large clumps of already tall,
fully developed pitchers, still green, some starting to turn the dark
red which will deepen with enough sunny days.
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On the right edge of the site, the pitcher plants give way to the
ancient, possibly virgin, forest. Several species of ferns
grow on the slope along with grasses, magnolias, bluestem, and sugar
maple.
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A thicket stands between the lower left part of the site and the surrounding
longleaf pine forest. The thicket, full of shadows on sunny
days and almost dark on cloudy ones, hides site 16C.
I walked right by it several times before I saw the pitcher
plants in it .
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| Site No. 16C |
The floor here is completely covered with white and brown magnolia leaves
mixed with pine needles. This mat sits on a frame of intewoven
long grasses and twigs. |
In the enclosing thicket, the sound of water running on the sand under
the leaf-carpet, betrays a seep-water stream which runs into a creek
further down the hill. If one follows the stream to open-canopy
spots, kneels by the sandy stream-bank and pulls back the grasses that
lean over the water, big, juicy, still-light-green pink
sundews are uncovered. |
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The floor here is completely covered with white and brown magnolia leaves
mixed with pine needles. This mat sits on a frame of intewoven
long grasses and twigs. 
In the enclosing thicket, the sound of water running on the sand under
the leaf-carpet, betrays a seep-water stream which runs into a creek
further down the hill. If one follows the stream to open-canopy
spots, kneels by the sandy stream-bank and pulls back the grasses that
lean over the water, big, juicy, still-light-green pink
sundews are uncovered. 
