The best laid plans of mice and men… 2020-08-03

Well, I thought I had the bloom pattern for Triphora trianthophoros or Three-birds orchid tied up in a nice bow, but boy was I wrong! All the signs pointed to another wave of blooms today, so I told a friend about it so that he could see them. Although I have photographed the first two waves of flowering of the population at my favorite site in the Pisgah National Forest, I thought I’d go up to check out how many flowers this third wave would produce.

Because of the approaching hurricane, the weather in our region had fallen apart, and it had been raining since last night. The break of day didn’t make things any better, and on my trip up the mountain, the rain was quite heavy. It did dissipate somewhat when I reached the site in the Pisgah National Forest, but when I reached the location where I knew there were some orchid plants, there were none in flower! Bummer! I spent about 15 minutes tromping around, jumping over dead tree limbs, and getting down on my hands and knees, but all I saw were plants with tight buds.

Time for “Plan B”: On my prior visit to the area last week, I had seen quite a few Platanthera ciliaris or Yellow Fringed orchids that just weren’t quite ready, as in “I’m ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille…” Now would be a good time to check them out. So, I packed my gear (it had just begun to rain again), rushed back to my truck and headed to the first Yellow Fringed orchid site just a few miles away.

Actually, I knew of two good sites, each just a short walk from the forest service road. On my way there, I was amazed at the lack of visitors to the parking areas near the many trail heads. Usually, especially in mid-Summer, the parking areas are completely full, and there is unofficial overflow parking along the road. But today, I saw maybe 3 or 4 cars total. I guess the rain had dampened the enthusiasm for hiking. Great!

I reached the first site, gathered my camera gear (still raining) and marched the short distance down a well-beaten trail where earlier this year, I had photographed dozens of Cypripedium acaule or Pink Lady’s-slipper orchids. Of course, they were done for the season, but among the still-green leaves of those plants were about a dozen Yellow Fringed orchids in pretty much full bloom. Here is a sample of the flowering plants at this first site:

Yellow Fringed orchids

Here are a few others from that site:

I had hoped to find larger, more fully flowered specimens, but I had one other site to check. It was a few miles farther west, and the rain was coming down in sheets.

The drive was not what I’d call thrilling, but my having to dodge some washed-out sections of that mountainous gravel road was “clenching”, if you know what I mean. Eventually, the rain lessened, and I made it to a sandy pull-off. Not wanting to get my camera gear completely wet, I left it in the truck and took a short hike through waist-high vegetation to an opening under the power lines. Here, I found quite a few Spiranthes lacera var. gracilis or Southern Slender Ladies’-tresses orchids just where I had expected them to be. Last week, I found a few blooming plants, but due to their slender green appearance when in bud, many plants were just not visible. On this trip, the flowers had opened, and there they were, begging to be photographed:

From my parking space, I could see some orange “torches” sticking up out of the roadside vegetation. The Yellow Fringed orchids tend to occupy a narrow band of roadside, which is nice for photography, but which also makes them vulnerable to roadside mowing. This particular forest service road has not been maintained in a few years and is ripe for the taking. Some of the Rhododendron and other woody shrubs have grown considerably since the last roadside trimming, and I suspect that it won’t be long before we see considerable maintenance action in the area. My hope, though, is that any shrubbery trimmings will be removed and not left on the ground where they are cut.

Here is a sample shot of the Yellow Fringed orchids blooming just next to the gravel road:

Fortunately, there was a lull in the rain, with just a light mist falling on me and my camera equipment. Some of the blooming plants were directly under the power lines, and this provided some clear shots of the inflorescences:

That last image (above right) is not the best of the Yellow Fringed orchid plants I saw, by a long shot, but it had an interesting association of Rudbeckia hirta or Black-eyed Susan.

The heavy rain had caused one of the inflorescences to become top-heavy, which gave me the opportunity to shoot a “from-the-top” shot:

Not too shabby a day, even though I was soaking wet by the time I got back in my truck to leave. I dried off my camera gear, packed it into the back seat, and headed up the road toward home. There were a couple of places I wanted to stop by and check on Yellow Fringed orchids on the way home, but they didn’t really pan out. The vegetation was too high, and it was still raining fairly heavily. I decided to leave them for another time…

My plan to visit the Carolina coastal plain in another 10 days will be somewhat of a challenge. I will have to check with my “scout” down there to see if the latest hurricane has left the place a mess. I hope that the next 10 days will bring some drying effect to the otherwise damp/wet habitats that I normally visit. I have been known to wade into the swamps with my rubber boots when needed, but if the water is too high, that will be a problem. Some of the fringed orchids down there do grow in a few of the drier habitats, so we will just have to wait and see…

Until then,

–Jim