I went with fellow native orchid enthusiast ken hull to a few spots in the adirondacks a few weeks ago. we stopped at a few places between thunderstorms, always listening cautiously for thunder approaching in our direction (well at least i was)
first we checked out the high, sandy bank bordering grant fen nature conservancy area. ken found a bunch of different club mosses that he said were quite unusual. we discovered that this area had nearly twenty spiranthes lacera var. lacera, or the northern version of the slender ladies' tresses. this was the first spot i had seen it where i had not been given directions to it! i had looked over this area a few years back and not found anything, because i had looked a few weeks earlier and no orchids were up yet. crab spiders are lurking in a few images
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there were four plants in a small, grassy 'room' or pocket of open area in between the trees; you can barely make them out in this picture, the breeze was moving them around quite a bit making them blurry. just beyond the room is the edge of the fen
next we went out into the fen, where we saw a few spiranthes romanzoffiana. the fen is patterned in that it has more and less alkaline areas, and the vegetation changes depending on the underlying soil type. romanzoffiana is usually found in the more calcareous areas (soil based on limestone)
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spiranthes romanzoffiana adult plants are fairly distinctive, in that the flowers have an extremely upright spiral. other spiranthes wind around the stem often rapidly; younger romanzoffiana can resemble shorter cernua plants in flower, but are more distinctive when older
next we found a few very late platanthera psycodes (purple, next to the tamarack seedling) and some horned bladderwort (yellow)
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the bladderwort was growing just in one general spot, also with kalm's lobelia nearby (didn't get a picture of the lobelia this year)
last pictures were on the bank of west canada creek where there were a few cardinal flower in bloom. it's reported that there are spots downstream that are covered with cardinal flower, but the best way to get to these spots is by canoe (i don't have one)
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first we checked out the high, sandy bank bordering grant fen nature conservancy area. ken found a bunch of different club mosses that he said were quite unusual. we discovered that this area had nearly twenty spiranthes lacera var. lacera, or the northern version of the slender ladies' tresses. this was the first spot i had seen it where i had not been given directions to it! i had looked over this area a few years back and not found anything, because i had looked a few weeks earlier and no orchids were up yet. crab spiders are lurking in a few images
there were four plants in a small, grassy 'room' or pocket of open area in between the trees; you can barely make them out in this picture, the breeze was moving them around quite a bit making them blurry. just beyond the room is the edge of the fen
next we went out into the fen, where we saw a few spiranthes romanzoffiana. the fen is patterned in that it has more and less alkaline areas, and the vegetation changes depending on the underlying soil type. romanzoffiana is usually found in the more calcareous areas (soil based on limestone)
spiranthes romanzoffiana adult plants are fairly distinctive, in that the flowers have an extremely upright spiral. other spiranthes wind around the stem often rapidly; younger romanzoffiana can resemble shorter cernua plants in flower, but are more distinctive when older
next we found a few very late platanthera psycodes (purple, next to the tamarack seedling) and some horned bladderwort (yellow)
the bladderwort was growing just in one general spot, also with kalm's lobelia nearby (didn't get a picture of the lobelia this year)
last pictures were on the bank of west canada creek where there were a few cardinal flower in bloom. it's reported that there are spots downstream that are covered with cardinal flower, but the best way to get to these spots is by canoe (i don't have one)
