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where these local water tables are continuous with drainage 

 lines, the ponds occur at the origins of the most headward 

 dendrites of drainage patterns. Most ponds have no surface 

 drainage at all. Evaporation and subsurface losses must, in 

 the latter situations, be responsible for observed seasonal 

 water-level reductions. 

 Biology : 



The biology of upland ponds in North Carolina has received 

 only scant attention. A paper by Beal and Quay (1968) dealt 

 with the taxonomy and ecology of a diminuitive bladderwort 

 known as Utricularia olivacea . In North Carolina this species 

 is found only in the upland natural ponds in the coastal plain. 

 Its entire world range is represented by only six other areas, 

 two in South America, one in Cuba, one in Florida, one in 

 Georgia, and one in New Jersey. Beal and Quay related this 

 unusual distribution to the migration routes of aquatic and 

 wading birds. ' "" 



Several other species of vascular plants are also known 

 only from these pond habitats in North Carolina, though their 

 total ranges extend outside this state. These are (Personal 

 Communication from A. E. Radford, University of North Carolina, 

 Chapel Hill, North Carolina): 



Myriophylluro laxum 



Eleocharis equisetoides 



Rhynchospora tracyi • 



Nymph o ides aquatica . " 



Eleocharis robbinsii 



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