Roberta Case Pine Hills Preserve

Alabama canebrake pitcher plant © Jerry Jackson

Why You Should Visit
This 364-acre preserve, located in the rolling hills of central Alabama, contains one of the largest and most natural populations of the federally endangered Alabama canebrake pitcher plant (Sarracenia rubra ssp. alabamensis). Occuring at several locations on the preserve, the pitcher plants thrive in isolated seepage areas within a longleaf pine forest.  This preserve also contains a large population of the globally rare Harper's heartleaf (Hexastylis speciosa).  Both of these unique plant species occur in central Alabama and nowhere else in the world.  Plants typical of the lower coastal plain can also be found in these seeps, including clubmosses, yellow-eyed grasses, hatpins and the spreading pogonia orchid. These plants have uniquely adapted to a narrow band along the mid-slope where water is seeping out of the ground. Without this seepage these plants would not survive in their upland habitat.

Location
Autauga County in central Alabama

Size
364 acres

How to Prepare for Your Visit
This preserve is open to the public by reservation only. For more information, please contact ktassin@tnc.org

What to See: Plants
Rare plant species include the Alabama Canebrake Pitcher Plant and the Harper's Heartleaf.  The majority of the preserve consists of upland longleaf pine forests.  Plants typical of coastal plain longleaf pine communities and small stream forests can be found on the preserve.

Facts about the Alabama Cane brake pitcher plant:

• First described by Fred and Roberta Case in the 1970s
• Only known from three counties in Alabama
• It is carnivorous, and obtains half its nutrients by trapping insects and other small animals in modified, tube-shaped leaves.
• The Cases, with help from many others, searched for and found about 28 colonies.

Also present, are disjunct populations of various plants more typical of the lower coastal plain also occur in these seeps, including clubmosses, yellow-eyed grasses, hatpins and the spreading pogonia orchid.

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
The preserve is named in memory of Roberta Case, who with her husband Fred discovered and described the Alabama canebrake pitcher plant many years ago. The Cases spent their lives together monitoring and researching the plant, as well as advocating for its permanent protection in Alabama.

Harper's Ginger Hexastlyis speciosa © Keith Tassin

What the Conservancy is Doing
Currently The Nature Conservancy is working to restore the longleaf pine and seepage slope communities that occur on this site, through removal of competing woody vegetation and prescribed burning.

Over half of the preserves currently owned by The Nature Conservancy in Alabama contain fire maintained ecosystems. The native plants and animals at these sites are dependent on periodic fires for their reproduction, growth and survival. Many of these areas are degraded due to fire suppression over the last 20-30 years or more. Without fire, these areas would continue to decline and many of the rare species they protect would be lost. Reintroduction of fire to many of these sites is the beginning of a long restoration process. Fire is being used at Pine Hills Preserve to restore longleaf pine ecosystems and the rare species associated with them, like the Alabama canebrake pitcher plant.