We spent two days in the forest in and around Rambuso, on Sudest Island, and saw some amazing native plants and habitats. One of my favorite habitats on earth is the wet savanna. You can find this habitat in many different elevations all over the world, and we found a beautiful one at 250 meters. This grassland has burned at least once a year as long as anyone in the village can remember. When they don’t burn patches of it in any given year, forest creeps back onto the land, replacing the grasses and other herbaceous flowering plants with trees and shrubs. The results of this burning is that the plants of the savanna are adapted to living with fire. Botanically, plants that are adapted to living with intermittent fire are called serotinous. Plants can adapt to fire in many different ways: They can require the accompanying heat and/or smoke for germination. They can have outer parts, such as bark or leaves, that burn but protect the growing parts below them. Or they can have structures such as underground stems or tough fruits that survive the fire and take advantage of a newly cleared environment in which to grow.
Pitcher plant (Nepenthes)
Grass (family Poaceae)
We saw many of these adaptations in the Sudest savanna, along with some of my favorite plants, among them sundews (Drosera), pitcher plants (Nepenthes), grasses (family Poaceae), sedges (family Cyperaceae), bladderworts (Utricularia), and many terrestrial orchids (family Orchidaceae).
Janet was beside herself with joy over the habitat, and the men guiding us that day found many things to ornament themselves with (a tendency I often observed in our male guides). All of the last-minute plants that we collected, in the rain, led to a late night of pressing on the boat (normally we press directly in the field).
what a fascinating habitat…what is the plant with white tubular flowers that the two men are carrying? is it in the rubiaceae
I’m with you, Susan, in your enthusiasm for the wet savanna. That’s a day you won’t forget. South African fynbos is different, but it was there I saw dainty bulbs and glistening sundews coming up around fire scorched proteas. Ah, life. Pat
Wow. Nice pictures. They look hd. I really want to go to Papua New Guinea.
im doing a report can you help….
I always like savannas,as a child I grew up on a savanna I like it for the beautiful flowers that grows unconditionally they never ask for any kind of care yet year after year there grows and flowers some of the most beautiful flowers like the irises I got one and planted it in a pot their flowers reminds me so much of my childhood,oh how beautiful was it!
hey!!! have you ever been to the caribbean I suggests you come to TRINIDAD where the most amazing flora and fauna awaits you,
pay us a visit sometime, pay a visit during the dry season when the blossoming poui trees shedding their golden flowers forming a most brilliant carpet where a king might wish to shed his shoes.
believe me its a botanist haven,
Of all of the habitats I have visited, wet savannas are by far my favorite. Every one I have seen has amazed me in its diversity and beauty.