Rendezvous 2018

Yes, it was cold and rainy, but…. what a blast! It would take much more than 37 degrees F and drizzle to ruin Rendezvous for me!

In fact, rain makes beauty, not only like that above, but in terms of what requires wet conditions to grow. This year’s Rendezvous was at Camp Hardtner near Pollock, La., a place I have been many times. But I have never seen sundews all over the place as we did this weekend.

Sundew is a tiny omnivorous plant of bogs and seeps. The red basal leaves are about the size of a quarter. They are hairy and at the tip of each hair is a drop of sticky liquid that catches ants and other small crawlers for the plant to eat. The plants had flower spikes this weekend, with tiny pink buds about to open.

Because of the weather, we did not spend as much time in the field as is typical for Rendezvous. The Board meeting Saturday afternoon also kept some of us in. However, Sunday dawned cool and beautiful, so the remaining diehards went out for about two hours. Kim Paxton and a person from another chapter are both working on species lists, which will ultimately be integrated and put on iNaturalist.

The speakers were excellent, but probably the highlight of the entire weekend for me was the return of the calico pennant dragonflies. I have only seen and photographed this species here at Camp Hardtner. They are a small dragonfly with wings that look like gold filigree in the sun. We saw two, both females. I was ecstatic!