I love walking the Shorepine Bog out at Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. There’s always something interesting in bloom and the bizarre twisted Shore Pines (Pinus contorta var. contorta) give the whole boardwalk a surreal Dr. Suess feel.
Searching for a Cobra Lily
I’ve been looking for an unusual plant that I’d seen on previous visits to the National Park in 2006 and 2008 so I was excited when I talked this week to a family who had seen something strange in the bog. As they started to describe the plant I knew that the Cobra Lily (Darlingtonia californica) had raised its “snake-like” form once again.
Native to northern California and Oregon this exotic looking pitcher plant is definitely out of its range here on Vancouver Island in British Columbia. However, though the plant is quite small it seems to be doing fine (despite its stunted growth).
Historical Records of Cobra Lily in the Bog
The history of the Cobra Lily’s arrival on the Shorepine Bog Trail begins in 1999 when an insectivorous plant enthusiast collected several seeds from plants in Oregon and then distributed them along the trail that fall. Several clumps of the plants were found in 2003, the largest of which was only 5cm in diameter. The pitchers themselves were only 10cm tall, much shorter than the typical 50cm height. I saw two or three clumps in 2006 and only one clump in the same location in 2008.
The Cobra Lily is definitely a very cool plant to look for while visiting Pacific Rim National Park Reserve. The fact that it has persisted for at least 10 years is quite interesting.
Well done for finding it again!
It definitely is an interesting looking plant – I’d love to take a road trip to northern California and see it in its natural habitat!
I live in Oregon and I have a pitcher plant in my backyard (in a pot, of course) and a venus flytrap. They do very, very well- I’ve had them for about 5 years or so and they keep growing. I would love to find one in the wild someday.
I’d love to see some full size Cobra Lilies in their natural habitat as well. We had some friends who did a nature road trip to northern California and they found a nice group of them. The one that I re-found here on Vancouver Island is pretty small!
There is a very large site of Cobra Lily (Darlingtonia californica) just north of Newport in Oregon for any of you who would like to see these plants in the wild. I saw them, complete with flowers, in the third week of May in 2010.
Thanks for pointing that out Judy – I hoping to do a road trip to the Pacific Northwest states and will put that on my “to see” list!
We hiked that trail in May of 2010 and saw 1 plant then. It didn’t look entirely happy, but it was putting up some fresh leaves. Here’s a pic I took of it then: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59003943@N00/5108731844/
Nice shot and glad that you got a chance to see it. I was working with Parks Canada last summer and ran into a carnivorous plant enthusiast on the boardwalk who recognized it as an introduced plant and asked if he could remove it. I told him to check with administration and he apparently got permission to take it as it was gone later in the summer. Will be interesting to see if any new plants come up this summer!