... or four native orchids and their royal retinue that I saw last week on a birthday road trip! two of the orchids are ladyslippers, so I put this collection in the cypripedium section
I managed to get last tuesday afternoon off from work, so I bolted before they could change their mind and met up with orchid friends Ken Hull, Bard Prentiss and .... in central ny to see isotria verticillata in flower! they all arrived a bit earlier as I had to drive quite a ways to get there (and stopped on the way to get some pizza and chicken riggies ... :drool: )
the first orchid I saw was a very nice double-flowered large whorled pogonia! I decided to make this rush trip because Bard mentioned in an email that there was a very nice double flower and since I had never seen one before felt this was a trip to make (i'll make different windows for each group of pictures since I probably won't be able to edit and upload them all at once)
when you see a group of whorled pogonia flowers or plants, you are actually looking at the surface of an orchid colony that likely has all connected tubers. individual plants and flowers are very likely all connected. so, one of the problems with trying to get up close to these flowers and take pictures is the likelihood that you are damaging the colony somehow. that said, this colony has a deer or two that sleep almost directly on top of some of the plants (plus a few plants are right in their trail)
this plant had it's flower facing directly upwards. I believe that when a flower is pollinated, it's ovary swells and the flower then turns upwards. it made for an easier close-up look at the front of the flower
this picture is showing a close group of over a half-dozen flowering plants; they are very hard to see on the forest floor, how many can you see?
another flowering plant blended right in with the undergrowth
i'll have a lot more pictures in new 'reply' windows
I managed to get last tuesday afternoon off from work, so I bolted before they could change their mind and met up with orchid friends Ken Hull, Bard Prentiss and .... in central ny to see isotria verticillata in flower! they all arrived a bit earlier as I had to drive quite a ways to get there (and stopped on the way to get some pizza and chicken riggies ... :drool: )
the first orchid I saw was a very nice double-flowered large whorled pogonia! I decided to make this rush trip because Bard mentioned in an email that there was a very nice double flower and since I had never seen one before felt this was a trip to make (i'll make different windows for each group of pictures since I probably won't be able to edit and upload them all at once)
when you see a group of whorled pogonia flowers or plants, you are actually looking at the surface of an orchid colony that likely has all connected tubers. individual plants and flowers are very likely all connected. so, one of the problems with trying to get up close to these flowers and take pictures is the likelihood that you are damaging the colony somehow. that said, this colony has a deer or two that sleep almost directly on top of some of the plants (plus a few plants are right in their trail)
this plant had it's flower facing directly upwards. I believe that when a flower is pollinated, it's ovary swells and the flower then turns upwards. it made for an easier close-up look at the front of the flower
this picture is showing a close group of over a half-dozen flowering plants; they are very hard to see on the forest floor, how many can you see?
another flowering plant blended right in with the undergrowth
i'll have a lot more pictures in new 'reply' windows