Cypripedium reginae in situ (also Platanthera hyperborea) *Lots of pics*

[musiclovertony]

On Sunday, I made a trip about 100 miles northwest of where I live to visit a rich, minerotrophic tamarack swamp. This swamp is the furthest south location in minnesota that I know has a very high and consistent population of Cyp. reginae. The swamp is about 40 acres in a 600 acre site owned by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and managed for wildlife.

The swamp is very high quality. I see no sign of human distruption in the swamp itself, which is (unfortunately) very rare. No discarded bottles, cans or cigarettes (or haphazardly placed footprints for that matter). The mosquitos and horseflies must keep all but the most dedicated visitors at bay. I always wear 100% deet, but I still ended up with more mosquito bites than I have ever had in my life. Also, I had the misfortune of placing my hand in an ant colony...that was not a pleasant experience, to say the least.

Anyways, the visit was wonderful. The showy lady's slippers were well past prime, but I did find a few dozen with flowers still open. The rest had either been pollinated, browsed by deer, or otherwise passed and shriveled. The Platanthera hyperborea (tall northern bog orchid) were just beginning to show up. I only found one plant with open flowers (and most on that plant were still in the process of opening). This area is absolutely magnificent in prime Lady's Slipper season, with hundreds of flowers open

This is what the area looks like. The canopy is all tamarack

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4719645565/

This is what most of the ground cover is like. The areas around the root systems of the trees have a cover of peat and brown mosses. The areas between the roots have mineral rich groundwater pools. The elevated, root zone areas tend to be the areas the Cypripedium grow alongside ferns, starflowers and dwarf raspberries

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4719647343/

Here is a Cyp growing from the elevated root zone of a tamarack tree

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4719593573/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4719594271/

And a different plant

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4719588811/

Some of the Cyp grow right out of the saturated peat in the basins between the Trees along with marsh marigold, sedges and horsetails. Note that there is the large clump of Cyp in the foreground as well as another large clump to camera rear-right and another large clump to camera rear-center (note the shriveled flowers on the other clumps)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4719590497/

A few other pictures

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4719646695/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4720244988/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4720238034/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4726906936/

An unusually lightly colored flower. There were a few colonies with one or two very lightly colored flowers, but none were true whites

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4720245542/

An early blooming Platanthera hyperborea with a blooming Cyp reginae in the background

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4720241948/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4720240658/in/photostream/

Iris versicolor, Northern Blue Flag Iris. These are well past prime, also

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4720294652/

A moth, Ctenucha virginica (thanks, Dot!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/musicloveranthony/4720298112/

 

[SlipperFan]

Cool photos!

Technically, I don't think the last one is a butterfly -- it doesn't have little knobs on the ends of it's antennae. A Skipper, maybe?

 

[smartie2000]

Thanks for sharing your photos! The habitat is beautiful and pristine.
My reginae won't be blooming this year, but at least I can see these

 

[musiclovertony]

Cool photos!

Technically, I don't think the last one is a butterfly -- it doesn't have little knobs on the ends of it's antennae. A Skipper, maybe?

Oh gosh, I have no idea! I thought it looked a little strange. The wings seem pretty small, too. Honestly, I don't know anything about insects so you're probably right

 

[SlipperFan]

I had to do a little research. It's actually a moth: Ctenucha virginica
See: http://somethingscrawlinginmyhair.com/2007/09/09/so-how-do-you-prononce-ctenucha-anyway/

Cool bug!

 

[musiclovertony]

Dot, thank you so much! You're a gem that was really neat of you to find that out. I'll have to correct that, now O

 

[SlipperFan]

You are welcome. I can't help myself -- I've seen these around here, also, but didn't know what they were. Thanks for spurring me on...

 

[Ross]

Nice pictures. I love them. To tell butterflies from moths, if they rest with the wings open they're butterflies. If they rest with the wings closed, they're moths. Julie-

 

[musiclovertony]

Nice pictures. I love them. To tell butterflies from moths, if they rest with the wings open they're butterflies. If they rest with the wings closed, they're moths. Julie-

Thank Julie for that! I love little knowledge nuggets, haha

 

[John M]

Wonderful photos! Too bad about the mosquitos; but, you must've still felt it was worth it to see these plants. Thanks for posting!

 

[biothanasis]

Excellent photos!! I am surprised the leaves of the cyps are in pristine condition!

I like the moth too! Very unusual!

 

[nikv]

It's wonderful to see our native orchids growing so well in the wilderness. Thanks for sharing your photos with us!

 

[musiclovertony]

Thanks everyone for checking them out and appreciating them! It's a great thing to see such lovely plants growing so happily and plentifully!

Excellent photos!! I am surprised the leaves of the cyps are in pristine condition!

From what I understand, the leaves can be pretty noxious. I don't believe in getting any closer than 2 or 3 feet to a Cypripedium, so I've never actually touched the leaves, but from what I hear they can cause contact-dermatitis and I can imagine that wouldn't be too nice to have on the tongue, or in the GI tract, haha So maybe the deer avoid the leaves for that reason? I'm really just guessing, here, but you're very right; the leaves on almost all the plants I saw were in pristine condition.

As you can see in this picture, though, the flowers are browsed off by deer. In fact, there were probably just as many browsed off flowers as there were blooming flowers, from what I saw. The leaves on this plant had been chewed some, where the flowers had been removed, but it looks like the deer tried one or two bites from a leaf and didn't like it, so tried one or two bites from another leaf. After a couple leaves, I think it just gave up :rollhappy:

 

[NYEric]

Cool, thanx for sharing. Seeing the Queen of Cyps in the wild is still a dream of mine.

 

[smartie2000]

...I don't believe in getting any closer than 2 or 3 feet to a Cypripedium, so I've never actually touched the leaves...

Good to hear that you don't get too close. If everyone went up close, the soil would probably become too compact and too disturbed for the plants to grow. I bet the peat it grows in is fluffy and not compact. (correct me if I am wrong about the soil)

 

[jewel]

the leaves appear to be quite hairy may be that's what protects them from the deer. beautiful photos! those are some huge, healthy plants, thanks mother nature!

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Great pics Tony. It is neat to see them growing up on tussocks like that. The forest looks pretty young. Is it being managed?

 

[cnycharles]

very nice pics! you can get mesh bug shirts that go over your head, arms and zip; keep out even mosquitos and allow air movement. only thing they don't allow is easy visibility for finding plants

 

[musiclovertony]

Cool, thanx for sharing. Seeing the Queen of Cyps in the wild is still a dream of mine.

You've gotta make it happen, Eric! There are populations in NY, right?

Good to hear that you don't get too close. If everyone went up close, the soil would probably become too compact and too disturbed for the plants to grow. I bet the peat it grows in is fluffy and not compact. (correct me if I am wrong about the soil)

Ya know, it's actually kinda hard to tell the firmness of the peat, with it being constantly saturated. I'd definitely think it's got to have a lot of air pockets and such in it, though. I definitely agree that compacted medium would not be ideal for the Cyps (or any of the other native plants) to germinate in

Great pics Tony. It is neat to see them growing up on tussocks like that. The forest looks pretty young. Is it being managed?

A fair question. I don't think the site is managed, currently. I know that the entire 600 acre area (which also contains 100 or so acres of oak forest, 100 or so acres of poor fen and 250 or so acres of shrub meadow) originally would have had 150 acres of crop land. It's certainly possible that while the site was still under private ownership, the swamp and surrounding upland forest could have been managed for timber. I think that I just happened to be in a younger part of the forest, though, while taking some of these pictures. It was older, with more tip downs and snags toward the center of the swamp and got younger with less age variation toward the edges. I think it is simply expanding into the surrounding lowlands.

very nice pics! you can get mesh bug shirts that go over your head, arms and zip; keep out even mosquitos and allow air movement. only thing they don't allow is easy visibility for finding plants

I've seen these, but had the same concern about visibility (and looking crazy )

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

Wow, great photos. I'd love to see those cyps insitu; they really are something. Cool photo of the moth, and interesting bits of information in everyone's posts about moths vs butterflies.Ya lLearn something everyday...