Florida is a land of intriguing contrasts; from stunning, award-winning beaches to massive backroad trails through swamps full of wildlife, the Sunshine State is a peninsula full of diverse natural habitats as well as developed urban sprawl. One underrated destination in Florida’s southern panhandle is Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park, a swampy paradise with a big bayou that blends both fresh and saltwater marshes in a unique ecology that hosts unusual flora and fauna — including two species of carnivorous plants!
Situated just 32 miles from the crystal-clear water of Gulf Islands National Seashore in Pensacola, Tarkiln Bayou is a wonderfully quiet nature reserve in close proximity to the development of Pensacola, and is truly a hidden gem for naturalists and outdoors enthusiasts. The park is named after 19th-century tar kilns built by early settlers to harvest and process sap from the local yellow pine trees. The sap was turned into tar and used in soap making, as well as for sealant used in manufacturing wooden ships. Today, savvy visitors on the lookout might be able to identify the traditional “cat face” gouges where some of the old pines were tapped for their sap.
One of the most fascinating features of Tarkiln Bayou is that it’s the home to a rare, carnivorous plant called the pitcher plant, found only in this Gulf Coast region, as well as three other subspecies of the pitcher plant and the Chapman’s Butterwort, another entirely different species of carnivorous plant. Pitcher plants thrive in soils that lack nutrients, adapting for survival by becoming carnivorous and capturing small prey with their leaves, which are shaped like those tall, eponymous water vessels. Pitcher plants have beautiful blooms in varying colors but use their sweet scent and an alluring ultraviolet light to lure unsuspecting insects — and the occasional tiny lizard — to their deaths…