A Rarely Seen Florida Beauty - the Downy Rattlesnake Plantain

Years ago, when Carl Luer published his masterwork, The Native Orchids of Florida, the Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) had been hinted at as growing in Florida, but had not been officially recorded.  It was listed in a section in his book of orchids that might one day be found growing wild in Florida.

Fast forward to 1983 where a pair of naturalists discovered a population on one of the many hills near the Apalachicola River.  As is seen elsewhere in north Florida, riverine systems are a means of many northern species making tentative forays into north Florida.  The climate is often just a bit cooler, giving plants a place to establish tenuous outlying colonies.

I have not yet had the privilege of seeing the Florida population, but I had encountered a population of these orchids while photographing Pink Ladyslippers near the Atlanta, Georgia area.  I hope one day to see the Floridian plants, if the colony still exists.  A lot can happen in 30 years.

The plants consist of a basal rosette of beautifully patterned leaves -- deep blue-green with silvery veins.  The hairy flower stem emerges in spring to bloom in mid-late summer with small, roundish flowers with green-striped sepals and deeply pouched lips.

Here are some photos of this species:

And here is the profile page on the Florida Native Orchids site:

http://www.flnativeorchids.com/natives_gallery/goodyera_pubescens.htm 

Snowfall in the Deep South, in Summertime!!

In general, the Snowy Orchid (Platanthera nivea) is a rarely seen summer-blooming orchid, earning a spot on the threatened plant list in Florida.  It is one of the few terrestrial bog/wetland orchids that bridges the gap between the spring bloomers and the late summer/fall bloomers.

Occasionally, however, it can become locally abundant, and when it does so, it can create spectacular displays in wet meadows and on wet roadsides.  I have seen two areas, one in the Florida panhandle and one in southeastern Georgia where this occurs, and the display is breathtaking!

Here is an individual flower head:

And here is a video taken in the same general area as the first picture in this post:

The flowers are nicely fragrant of citrus blossoms and hold small amounts of nectar in the tips of their spurs to reward their pollinators (likely small butterflies).

 

Feature on OrchidsMadeEasy.com

I was recently interviewed for a guest feature on the Orchids Made Easy blog.  You can read the article here:

http://www.orchidsmadeeasy.com/florida-native-orchids/

Thank you to Ryan and Jenny for the honor of inclusion on your blog!

 

33rd Annual Florida Native Plant Society Conference

I will be speaking at the 33rd annual Florida Native Plant Society Conference on Friday afternoon and exhibiting (i.e. selling stuff - photos, t-shirts, greeting cards, etc.) on Friday and Saturday.  Please stop by and say "hi"!

http://www.fnps.org/conference

Pink Ladyslipper or Scratch Another Thing Off the Bucket List

This entry's orchid is one not native to Florida, but native to the greater United States.

Growing up in Florida, I have appreciated how we are home to a wealth of orchid species found nowhere else in the country.  That does not mean, however, that other states in the Union don't have equally as lovely (and sometimes even lovelier) orchids that grow only outside our state boundaries.  One such orchid is one that I have wanted to see in person for decades as I have salivated over photographs of it in flower...Cypripedium acaule or the Pink Ladyslipper, also known as the Moccasin Flower.

This species is still relatively common throughout a large swathe of the eastern US and Canada, being found typically in pine forests where the pine needle litter tends to keep the soil quite acidic.  Without this acid soil, this plant will quite often succumb within a few years, while plants in the their native environs will last for decades.  These orchids, therefore, do not make good garden plants and are best left to be enjoyed in the wild.

With the help of some on-line orchid colleagues, I was able finally to observe this species in situ in a park to the southwest of Atlanta, Georgia. They were everything I hoped they would be and more.  The flowers themselves ranged in size from having pouches about 1.5 inches long to close to 3 inches long.  I am guessing the larger flowers belonged to older, more robust plants, while the smaller flowers must have belonged to plants just a few years old. One surprising characteristic was their sweet scent, reminding me of the scent of citrus blossoms.

In this, however, these flowers can be deceiving.  They offer no nectar or pollen as a reward to their pollinators.  Instead, pollinating insects end up entering the pouch-shaped lip through what is essentially a one-way valve.  The only escape is to climb a ladder of upward-pointing hairs going up the backside of the flower.  This path leads out underneath the waiting pollen masses and/or stigmatic surface of the column. The hapless insects who escape this trap end up dispersing pollen to other nearby flowers.  Not all insects do escape, leading to small collections of dead insect corpses in the bottom of the pouch of some flowers.

It was certainly the thrill of a lifetime to stand on that remote hillside beneath the pines and observe hundreds of plants in various stages of bud.  Only a few flowers were open, but that was enough for me to take some really pleasing photographs, if I do say so myself

In any case, here are some of the photos from that day (click each image to see a larger display):