Don't pick the flowers-- They bite back

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Christopher Reel
  • 325th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Beyond the runways, roads and buildings that cover just a fraction of Tyndall's acreage there are 127 miles of shorelines, dense pine woods and an array of marshy habitats.

Of these platforms there is something unique in each: F-22 Raptors on the runways, sea turtles on the beaches and carnivorous plants in the bogs shadowed under the pines.

There are five species of carnivorous plants at Tyndall: pitcher plant, sundew, dew thread, butterwort and bladderwort.

Carnivorous plants tend live in nitrogen poor and acidic environments such as the bogs and savannas found on Tyndall, explained Wendy Jones, 325th Civil Engineer Squadron Natural Resources wildlife biologist.

One of the more prominent species found on Tyndall is the pitcher plant, which lives more than two years.

The leaves of the pitcher plant, when matured turn into a bug-trapping cylinder, which looks like a pitcher, explained Lisa Keppner, Sweetbay Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society president. The tubular leaves, or pitchers, have hairs inside that are arranged to stick downward preventing any insects from crawling out.

"The insects drop down in the water that collects at the bottom of the tube and slowly decompose releasing nutrients into the water, which are then absorbed by the plant," Ms. Jones said.

There are four kinds of pitcher plants in this area of the Florida Panhandle: yellow pitcher plant, white-topped pitcher plant, parrot pitcher plant and gulf purple pitcher plant, said Ms. Keppner.

Of these, the gulf purple and the parrot are listed as threatened by the State of Florida and the white-topped is listed as endangered.

The Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973 defines two classes of declining species of plants and animals that need protection. A threatened species is any species that is likely to become an endangered species within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant portion of its range. Endangered species are of those in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.

"The most protected species of plant currently known to exist at Tyndall is the violet flowered butterwort, as it is listed by both state and federal agencies," Ms. Keppner said.

The butterwort is a rare small plant that has leaves coated with sticky glandular hairs, which are used to trap insects.

The violet butterwort is native only in the wetlands of five counties in the central Florida Panhandle, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service plants database.

"Protected plants should not be removed. The removal of any native plant out of the wild, while not necessarily illegal, is considered unethical," Ms. Keppner said.