native orchids in adirondacks

[NYEric]

Or just my sugar sweetened blood!

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

ram's head orchids and pollen is endangered and protected, so none could be available

just to try and explain, I think that people who are trying to conserve cypripedium arietinum have to jump through hoops just to send pollen, plants or such between states in the u.s. because of its endangered status. I think a few vendors have tried to grow it, but not completely successfully as I haven't seen it offered for sale. it isn't very common in new york state and the only places I've seen it were on protected land, never on someone's property. if you were looking for cyp acaule pubescens or other common cyp species there wouldn't be a problem, but I would never want to take a chance with something as rare as ram's head; besided the legal issues I would rather try and pollinate flowers I see and spread the seed around an extant site (which is also illegal I think unless you own the land or found a place to purchase a plant and have successfully flowered it) to get more of it to grow. I think like eric says, places like minnesota and nearby canada have many more of them, but they still are not common even in that area

Definitely much more rare in the northeast than in the Great Lakes States, especially around Lake Superior. Bill Steele used to sell seedlings years back, but was told to desist, if memory serves. Yet another great example of how "orchid conservation" in fact stifles plant protection. I wouldn't recommend this one for general culture though since it seems quite prone to all manner of problems and doesn't withstand high temperatures (not more than ~25 C for sure, lower is better though). If you live in a USDA zone 4 or lower it might be worth trying if you construct a deep sandy bed moderately acidic in reaction. Otherwise, you'll probably not succeed. BTW, I've heard the Isle Royale National Park is brimming with them. That's good to know

Thanks Charles for your great photos and text. They make me homesick for my home state!

 

[cnycharles]

flower update!

I decided to avoid spraying at work tonight and dodge the slow-moving thunderstorms and try to check out how the yellow ladyslippers were doing up at remsen bog... my old, trusty golf/orchid hunting umbrella is giving up the ghost and there was some scattered lightning nearby, so I wasn't too keen on hanging around very long, but quickly saw that half of the orchids were already flowering! I thought I would be only be taking a progression photo, but the yellows always surprise me on how fast they can flower. All the rain we have been having has probably helped them along as well. Nearby Rome, NY has had flooding from downpours two days in a row and luckily the storm was two miles west of where I was though it was lightly raining. I didn't have my tripod so the pics are a little grainy and I used flash for most of them

yellow ladyslippers aka cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens

a shy bloomer

this was my attempt to catch a speeding red eft salamander on film... (okay, so I accidentally tripped the shutter while trying to get a light reading )

I would think that anyone that wanted to see the yellow ladyslippers at labrador hollow would be able to anytime in the next week. I don't have a visual myself from there, but with this rain, if some are open here at higher altitude then they would be at labrador hollow (or at least very soon)

 

[NYEric]

Er.. no photos!

 

[cnycharles]

pics are up!

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Looks wet and cool there. What a "spring" you all have been getting up there in the Northeast

 

[NYEric]

The weather is warming up but its still very cool at night!

 

[Kevin]

I'll try:

some of these are common, but if you know what some of these are (besides the red trillium) please chime in and let us know what they are

I think these are called toad lily. they are closed because of the cloudy weather and being early evening

Erythronium americanum or Trout Lily.

a friend took pics of these last year, but could not identify them. anyone?

Dogwood

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

a friend took pics of these last year, but could not identify them. anyone?

Looks like hobblebush to me, Viburnum lantanoides.

 

[Marc]

Thanks for these pictures, seeing cyp's in the wild is on my to do list for someday in the future. These pictures only add to the desire to fullfill that wish one day.

i'm not sure what these next two pictures are of, except maybe some sort of horsetail or relative?

This looks like a form of horsetail to me, I have a Equisetum japonicum in the garden and this spring it was dug out and placed in a bucket without any drainage holes. This stupid plant produces runners about 30cm's under the surface. These runners then produce new growths every 15-30 cm's which work their way up through the soil. Since I dug out this plant I'm still working on getting the leftovers out of the shadow section of the garden.

Tip of the day. Don't plant this in your garden!

 

[likespaphs]

Erythronium americanum or Toad Lily.

trout lilies!
toad lilies are Tricyrtis and i'm pretty sure there are no native U.S. species

 

[Kevin]

Oh yeah, wrong common name. Changed it in that post. Latin is the way to go!