Midsummer's Day Madness

Summer arrived today, and with it a day of suffocating heat.  What kind of crazy people would spend a stifling day like today tromping about in a wetland, blazing sun pounding down like a load of hot bricks on our backs, sweat washing the eyeglasses right off our noses?   Well, they don't call us wildflower nuts for nothing!  That's my friend Bob above, a fellow . . .  er, nature enthusiast, who kindly drove me some hours away to a nature preserve known to be home to the incomparable Showy Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium reginae), truly the queen of the Lady's Slippers.

I'm sure that only a fellow orchid enthusiast would understand why we had to get out to this secret spot today, to catch these incredibly beautiful native orchids while they were still in bloom.  I can't think of anything I could say to convince other folks we hadn't lost our minds.  Perhaps a few photos can serve as explanation.

 When we first walked into this wetland, we didn't see a single Lady's Slipper and we began to worry that we had missed their bloom time.  But then Bob let out a yell:  Here's one!  By the time we were done exploring the area, we had counted over a hundred, most in full glorious bloom, a few past their prime, but many more still in bud.  What a day!


Those Lady's Slippers weren't the only orchids we found in there, either.  Small groups of the White Bog Orchis (Habeneria dilatata) were scattered about the wetland,  holding tall spikes of snowy white blooms well above the surrounding greenery.

I had nearly despaired of getting a close-up shot of this orchid's little blooms until Bob pulled out a white folding screen and held it behind the flower spike.  At last my camera decided to focus on the flower instead of all the grasses beyond it.

Update:  Got a note from a blog reader asking if I had noticed the crab spider lurking among the florets.  I had not, but I do now!  Can you see it up there on the top right?


We were truly startled to find this single Grass Pink (Calopogon tuberosus) in bloom, since another bog where we know these bright pink orchids grow abundantly has shown no sign of them as yet.  

Finding that Grass Pink made it a three-orchid day, enough to satisfy the very nuttiest of nature nuts.  But what really crowned the day was discovering this little patch of Pink Pyrola (Pyrola asarifolia), a flower that's at least as rare in New York as the Showy Lady's Slippers.   We owe this find to a group of orchid enthusiasts who entered the preserve while we were just leaving and pointed  this lovely little flower out to us.

There were many butterflies flitting about the wetland, but none would sit still for a photo.  But never mind.  This baby butterfly did, and it's almost as pretty as its adult form, the Baltimore Checkerspot Butterfly, will be.

Another Day, Another Adventure -- or Two! Or Three!

Another day full of fun on the bogs and ponds! I believe I have had more nature adventures in the past two weeks than most folks have in a lifetime. And today was certainly one of those days to remember for a lifetime. Here's my friend Evelyn leading me to one of her secret boggy spots to show me an incredible treasure: dozens of Showy Lady's Slippers in glorious full bloom.

It was certainly worth the two-hour drive up into the southwestern Adirondacks to lay my eyes on these beauties, a native orchid that is growing ever more rare.

Walking around this fen, it was hard to believe this plant is considered rare, since everywhere we looked we found more and more, including these unusual twin blooms.

There were other orchids, too, that had found a hospitable home in this rich fen, which is defined as a wetland that may be acidic close to the surface, but which provides nutrients to the plants that grow there from a calcium-rich substrate such as marble or limestone. That's exactly the kind of habitat that suits this White Bog Orchis.

This green one, too. We haven't quite decided which green orchid this is. Our best guess is Northern Green Orchis (Platanthera aquilonis).

Alpine Bulrush, with its waving long white hair, carpeted the damp sunny spots in the fen.

The pistils of Water Avens continue to grow, even after the flower has started to form seed, which gives this plant a wild and crazy appearance this time of year.

Who would guess that these beautiful structures are the seed receptacles of Marsh Marigold?

These look like tiny roses, don't they? They're the tender baby cones of Tamarack.

The day was still young, so we decided to paddle around nearby Sand Lake, which required that we carry our boats a half mile through some very muddy woods to come out onto this pristine body of water, which we had all to ourselves on this splendid blue-sky day.

Evelyn wants to call this Floating Heart Lake, since we found lots of these pretty little heart-shaped leaves floating on the quiet water where we put in. Later they will have small white flowers. It might be worth braving that muddy trail again to see these flowers in bloom.

Today, the most abundant flower blooming around the lake was Sheep Laurel, and it put on quite a show.

We paddled completely around the lake, pulling into this inlet to see how far up it we could go. Not far, it turned out, for this open channel soon narrowed to a rocky stream too shallow to paddle on.

Among the masses of Pickerel Weed, we found these mini-bog clumps, with beautiful dark-red Pitcher Plants towering over carpets of sphagnum and cranberry, punctuated with the dark pink leaves of Marsh St. Johnswort and the tender green bud-topped shoots of what will be Rose Pogonia.

It was another animal-rescue day. Twice, we found dragonflies of this species fluttering on the water until we fished them out and let them perch on our fingers until they dried. But they never did take flight. I wonder if their life cycle is complete and they are dying?

This angry snapper may well have died if I hadn't removed it from the middle of the road. This is the second snapper we helped across the road today.

I was surprised by how each turtle turned to confront me when I tried to nudge it across. For this turtle I used a snow scraper I found in my trunk to push it across. It did not appreciate that one bit, living up to its "snapper" name, but it did finally turn and proceed down the bank to a waterway, out of harm's way for the moment.

I then proceeded on my way, damp and muddy and scratched and bug-bitten and tired, but also deliriously happy to have spent such a day exploring such marvelous places.

A Celebration of Orchids

A few years ago, my husband had gone to Paris and a friend asked me why I hadn't gone with him. "Oh, I've been to Paris and I don't need to go there again" I answered, explaining that I'd rather stay home and hunt for wildflowers. Then I added, "If someone could show me where Showy Lady's Slippers grow, that would be worth the trip!" Well, folks, today someone did show me where Showy Lady's Slippers grow, and it was, indeed, worth the trip. I'm sworn to secrecy about the location, but I will let on that I traveled over a hundred miles (round trip) to see them. Or rather, to see just one. And my, it was beautiful!

It was quite a day for orchids, in fact. That Lady's Slipper was the showiest, no doubt, but my friends and I found several more. First, when Ellen and I stopped along the Ice Meadows just north of Warrensburg, we stumbled across a Tubercled Orchis hidden among the grasses along the Hudson. Its greenish-yellow flowers were too small for my naked eyes to see, but my macro lens managed to capture some detail.

We also found the small orchid called Wide-leaved Ladies' Tresses growing there among marble rocks. This is the earliest Ladie's Tresses to be found, and one of the details that sets it apart is its yellow lower lip.

Later on, in the fen where the Showies were growing, we found this Northern Green Orchis. Its flowers are just as green as its leaves, and because it was growing in very deep shade, it was hard to photograph with my pocket camera.

That same boggy woods was a treasure trove of pyrolas of many species. The first one we found was One-flowered Pyrola, scattered like stars across the forest floor. Some little pink Twinflower made it into the photo, as well.

One-flowered Pyrola hangs face-down, so you have to lie low to see the detail of its flower.

One-sided Pyrola grew abundantly there in the mossier spots.

And so did lovely Pink Pyrola, the tallest and showiest of all.

The Cottongrass we found in the shadowy fen is a different species than that which grows out on the sunny Ice Meadows. I don't know the name of the one we found today. It was certainly furry!

I was surprised to see the pretty blue speedwell called American Brooklime growing in such deep shade, since I usually find it where streams run through open marshes.

So all in all, this was a very special day for a wildflower-obsessed person like me. I'm recalling that phrase, "See Paris and die," but I'm substituting "Showy Lady's Slippers" for the word "Paris." Not that I'm ready to die. But it did seem today that I got to go to wildflower Heaven.

P.S. To get some idea of just how special these flower finds were, go to the USDA plant data site and type in the name of any one of them. There you will see how many are on endangered species lists in many, many states. Including New York.