My bad. It grows very well in straight peat or live spagnum. Peaty sandy wet savannahs, often bordering slow streams, ponds and into bogs and whatnot are it's natural habitat and grass-fires are VFT's friend as well as various sarracenias. Tho, I think starting grass-fires in ones pot of VFT's would be... problematic.
I know of at least a few people who did that for their inground artificial bogs tho. The pocosin bog appears to be about as ideal as one can get for VFT's. I find it amazing that it's persisting under the brush tho - VFT's like lotsa light. I wonder if the ash also has some beneficial qualities for VFT. Also, under the pines, the pine-peat no doubt was a benefit too.
Cheers,
Mike
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zac in NC
Well I am going to chime in as I live in NC and have seen VFTs in the wild in several localities( including one new place found by myself and another guy). They do not grow in as wet areas as mentioned. They grow in sandy, moist savannahs that burn frequently. I found several last summer while doing research with a graduate student in botany. He is studying fire ecology and we were working on a tract of land that had been cut over 7 years back. The result was a huge growth of understory shrubs into a pocosin type area. In one of our plots, we had a VFT and we were shocked that it was still there. This was in one of our drier plots and it had had Long Leaf pines within the total area and the fact that it had brushy growth which could choke it out. We also found a population in one of the bush-hog road cuts for the hunters to get around in with their ATVs. I am not saying they don't grow in sphagnum in other localities but I have not personally seen them growing in that.
Zac
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