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Southeastern North Carolina is arguably one of the
most precious places on earth, in part because this is where we can find
Venus fly traps growing in their natural element; the sunny edges created
where sandy longleaf pine forest soils merge with peaty pocosin soils.
These beguiling carnivorous plants, along with hundreds of other kinds of
wildflowers, shrubs and trees are found in a coastal plain ecoregion shaped
by time, topography and climate, an ecoregion curiously dotted with a
unique wetland habitat equally odd as the fly trap — the Carolina Bay.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDY WOOD PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDY WOOD WBM FILE PHOTO
Top: Black Gum trees with buttressed trunks fringe this isolated Carolina Bay pond
in Pender County. Above from left: Kalmia flowers, Gordonia flower and Venus flytrap.
Opposite: “Farm Field Bay,” Bladen County, photogravure by Jennifer Page.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
PHOTOGRAVURE BY JENNIFER PAGE, CAPE FEAR PRESS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDY WOOD
