Last monday I had the day off as holiday and went with Ken and Jerry to Allegany State Park which is in the far southwestern corner of new york state. It's two hours to binghamton where they live from my apartment, then another loooooooooong three hour drive to salamanca and the park from there. I snoozed in the back seat while the two chatted endlessly since I had played golf in the hot sun the weekend before (well, I had tried to play golf; had been two years since I'd played last...)
We were looking for platanthera orbiculata which is the smaller form of the two round pad-leaved orchids found in new york state. Where we are, you can go to several spots to find the larger one which looks very similar. You have to look at some flower characteristics to tell them apart. Only a species purist would really care; the flowers were a bit old so the pics aren't that special, except for the merged pictures of the very nice lake found between the mountains near the camping/administration/swimming area I took. New York is blessed with lots of water features, from niagara falls to the west, the two great lakes which border it to the west and north, the st. lawrence seaway to the north, the finger lakes region, the adirondack park and catskill park lakes and the many other lakes and streams often filled with wildlife (not to mention the long island sound and atlantic ocean and waterways around nyc).
plant with old flowers
older plant with seed pods developing
a look down on the plant
jerry getting a close-up shot
close-up of old flowers. the spur in the back is much shorter than for p. macrophylla which is why we can identify them as orbiculata
merged view of the lake in the middle of the mountains
charles and ken checking out the identification
We were looking for platanthera orbiculata which is the smaller form of the two round pad-leaved orchids found in new york state. Where we are, you can go to several spots to find the larger one which looks very similar. You have to look at some flower characteristics to tell them apart. Only a species purist would really care; the flowers were a bit old so the pics aren't that special, except for the merged pictures of the very nice lake found between the mountains near the camping/administration/swimming area I took. New York is blessed with lots of water features, from niagara falls to the west, the two great lakes which border it to the west and north, the st. lawrence seaway to the north, the finger lakes region, the adirondack park and catskill park lakes and the many other lakes and streams often filled with wildlife (not to mention the long island sound and atlantic ocean and waterways around nyc).
plant with old flowers
older plant with seed pods developing
a look down on the plant
jerry getting a close-up shot
close-up of old flowers. the spur in the back is much shorter than for p. macrophylla which is why we can identify them as orbiculata
merged view of the lake in the middle of the mountains
charles and ken checking out the identification
