Darlingtonia State Natural Site – Florence, OR

Many years ago, I housed a Venus Flytrap.  Despite periodically feeding it tiny scraps of hamburger, the trap kept growing closer and closer to the kitchen table, making meal times somewhat unnerving. Thus, an opportunity to see thousands of carnivorous  plants in action was irresistible.  According to the Oregon State Parks website, Darlingtonia State Natural Site “is the only Oregon State Park property dedicated to the protection of a single plant species…the plants it protects are the only carnivorous flora in the system.”  For more information, go to http://stateparks.oregon.gov

The plants are ten to twenty inches tall, with hooded leaves over hollow tubes.  There are hidden openings housing nectar to attract insects.  Insects have difficulty finding their way out, eventually falling to the bottom of the tube.  They decompose and are absorbed by the plants.  Fortunately, this process isn’t visible to visitors, who can enjoy the exotic appearance of the purple and red plants.

The small park, located north of Florence, contains boardwalks to traverse the park.  Falling off the boardwalk is not likely to benefit either visitors or plants.  The plants grow in boggy, serpentine soils, which also appear to be beneficial to ferns and colorful mosses.  The area has dense stands of spruce, cedars, pines and rhododendron.  We visited on an overcast day, which added an eerie feel to the environs.  Anyone interested in unusual plants, especially carnivorous ones, would enjoy visiting the site.

Anne

The floristic commentary above hints at Anne’s status as a Master Gardener, although she is very modest about it because her training was in the CA Central Valley.  However, she hit it exactly with the “eerie feel.”  I kept looking around for doomed insects and listening for tiny bubbly shrieks as they fell into the digestive juices.

On the philosophical front, is this odd?  You betcha.  Just because it’s natural doesn’t make it ordinary.  Nature green in fang and claw.  The Garden of the Flesh-Eating Vegetation.  Their popular nickname fits right in — Cobralily.  It is a nice, if eerie, wayside stop, particularly well-suited for budding (ho ho) naturalists.                                   Bob

To view or download a PDF of directions to the location, click here