The Jewel on the Forest Floor

  A few months back, I was lamenting the fact that I could find no sundew plants down in the creek behind the house.  There were tons of them in my daughter's bog but nary a one in ours.  It saddened me since I truly love these little plants.  Their bejeweled leaves sparkle and shine with each sunbeam.  The "jewels" are droplets of sweet mucilage (think glue here...yep, glue!) and are designed with one thought in mind...attracting bugs.  Once a critter climbs on board to take a sip, they become ensnared in the sticky stuff and WHAM!, they are caught.  The plant has supper.  The critter is absorbed as nutrients by the plant. Sundews can grow in the poorest of soils due to the fact that they "eat" to gain nutrition.  I like them, not only because they are beautiful, but because they do catch bugs.  One thing we have plenty of here on the Bayou, is BUGS!

 Earlier today, I meandered back behind the canebrake, down the hillside to the creek area.  I could not go deep into the creek bed since a storm is brewing and has the tide in the Bay quite high.  This water pushes into the Bayou and eventually into the creek.  Today, the creek was swollen to the point that it was a bit treacherous to enter.  Snakes would be seeking higher ground and might be on my usual path.  While most would be water snakes, there is always the outside chance that a moccasin might be among the ferns.  It was best that I stick to higher ground myself.  I chose one spot where the sun filtered down between the leaves of a poplar tree dappling the ground below.  Making myself comfortable to listen to the rails chattering their conversations between nest sites, I spied a sparkly red object and had to investigate.  A small patch of sundews was shimmering in the sunlight!  I was elated!  The seven small plants were nestled in a patch of peat moss (which was also a pleasant find!).  Since Hurricane Katrina dumped a couple of tons of debris in my creek, we have been hard pressed to find any such plants and, now, I found a fresh start! These were on higher ground than expected but seemed to be doing quite well.  The sundews were thriving on the many insects already creepy-crawling about the place.  Curious fact...our sundews are not nearly as vivid as those in my daughter's bog.  There are at least 194 species of sundews with some looking quite different than others.  Hers are brilliant ruby red while ours have a good bit of green in the leaves.  Seems like a bog garden needs to be in the works during the near future!  There are so many unique plants that not many folks ever get the chance to see.  It would be fun to share the beauty.