today I had planned on visiting the upper hudson river area with my mother and stepfather who were visiting from new mexico. their plans changed a little so I decided to check out a place I've been before called nelson swamp state unique area. I had found striped coralroot a handful of years ago, and the recent weather (rainy and cool) was similar to that year, so I'd had a feeling that I should check things out this year. striped coralroot at nelson swamp doesn't come up in the same area from year to year, so many people end up searching a very large area in hopes of finding some. it's the only known location for it in new york state, though there had been a few others before the cedar swamps had been logged. so, it's virtually one of the rarest plants/orchids in new york since it isn't even visible every year or even most of the time. I parked at the one spot near one of the park boundaries, and set out to find some western spotted coralroot which often grows along the western side in black, mucky areas. I found some nodding trillium and lots of ferns right away, and a few other interesting things. after wandering for about 20 minutes I saw a patch of green jack-in-the-pulpits and headed for them to get a pic, and looking down I saw three striped coralroot growing right next to each other! I was quite surprised since they most often had been found over along the eastern boundary, and this was the zone where the other coralroots had been found before. plus, how lucky can you be, wandering for a swamp for less than half an hour and finding one of the rarest plants? I truly think angels guided me these plants and the one I found a few years ago during a foggy, rainy day. both times I walked right up to the plants and almost stepped on them. if anyone has ever walked through (or tried to) a cedar swamp before, finding anything or even walking in a straight line is an extreme accomplishment. after hanging my sweatshirt and camera bag on some limbs near the plants, I headed back to my car to get some materials to mark the area. on return I ended up finding one more plant within ten yards of the three. in the other direction I also found a nice yellow ladyslipper and found a few others in different parts of the swamp. to top it off, the black spruce smell absolutely wonderful!
shot showing the stem bracts (no green leaves for this and many corallorhiza)
all of these pics were taken by hand without a tripod and was quite breezy; will head back tomorrow after work with tripod to try and get some really nice closeups
shot showing the stem bracts (no green leaves for this and many corallorhiza)
all of these pics were taken by hand without a tripod and was quite breezy; will head back tomorrow after work with tripod to try and get some really nice closeups
Jean
