Image #208 – I Wish I Knew

I had a nice hike at Myakka River State Park on Sunday along with my friend Kim and, of course, Tango.  It was Kim who spotted the plant above.  At the time I was busy collecting my dog who had decided to go for a swim in the marshy area by the two-track path we were following. I didn’t really mind that he decided to go for a swim but his backpack contained my macro lens!  Thankfully no harm was done.  Tango did need a bath afterwards.

But I digress. This tiny gem is about 2″ in circumference and seems to favor marshy ground. We found numerous clusters near the marsh but none further on. Alas, all my reference books are in NC and I am in FL so I had to dig a bit on the web.  The “petals” as you can see, are spiked with a dewy substance on the tips.  The plant seemed carnivorous so I ran a search on Bing images but, as usual, there were pictures with no data.  I did locate one plant that was very similar and it had a name–Sundew.  So I proceeded with a search based on  “Sundew” plant and learned it was part of the Drosera family–there are more than 170 species.  So, Sundew is as good as it gets. They are small and easy to overlook–especially when you dog goes swimming with your macro lens. 🙂