Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations
The longleaf pine savanna · By Dirk Frankenberg
Pocosin community
Figure 16. A low pocosin wetland (foreground) and pond pine woodland (background) are two other rare plant communities found in Camp Lejune. (Photograph by the author. More about the photograph)
We cannot close this field trip to Camp Lejeune without taking you quickly to some of the other rare plant communities that are found there. Camp Lejeune is recognized by biologists as globally significant for its populations of rare plants and animals (Figures 13–15). More than 25 percent of the known living specimens of four different species occur within the base, as well as globally significant populations of both the red cockaded woodpecker and Bachman’s sparrow. There are also rare communities found here. The only known example of calcareous coastal fringe forest occurs here as do excellent examples of small depression ponds, low pocosin, and cypress savannas.
Figure 16 shows an example of the low pocosin community with an equally good pond pine woodland community in the background. These two communities grade into one another as do the pocosin and longleaf pine communities illustrated in Figure 12. Low pocosins are now quite rare as they are often drained so that the land can be used for other purposes. They are interesting ecologically because they occur on the highest elevations within the pocosin (thereby making them the easiest to drain) and have the lowest level of nutrients (hence the diminutive size of the plants). It is the low-nutrient water that seeps naturally from these communities that makes it advantageous for Venus flytraps to capture insects for the nutrients that they contain. This probably explains why flytraps occur in the ecotone between pocosins and savannas.
The pocosin supplies water but few plant nutrients. The savanna supplies open areas for growth, but no significant nutrients. If you want to live successfully between these communities you had better figure out a clever way to get nutrients from somewhere! Clearly, Venus flytraps have evolved a very clever way to solve this problem.
