More Orchids and Carnivorous Plants in North Georgia — 2013-06-02

It seems like I’m spending a great deal more time botanizing in north Georgia these days than I am in either South Carolina (my headquarters) or North Carolina. But that’s OK. I think it was Sir Edmond Hillary who said the following when asked why he wanted to climb Mt. Everest, “Because it’s there!” That’s good enough reason for me to be botanizing in Georgia. In addition, two of my favorite botanizing partners, Alan Cressler and Steve Bowling, both who live in Atlanta, are intimately familiar with that area and know all of the best places to visit.

Along on this trip were Alan Cressler, Steve Bowling, Tom Patrick (Georgia state botanist), Dave Pearce, and me. There were two locations for us to visit: The seeps at Brasstown Valley (north of Young Harris, Georgia), and Reed Branch Sarracenia site (near Lake Chatuge) — both locations in Towns County, which is one of the smallest of Georgia’s 159 counties. As I understand it, the reason for having so many counties in the state is that Georgia was a very rural state. It was thought that since there were so many farmers in Georgia, they should be able to ride no more than a day on horseback to reach the seat of county government. Towns County may be small, but it is packed with wonderful botanical sites. The rest of our field trip group later planned to visit Brasstown Bald, a site for several rare plants, but I was just not up to the hike, so I deferred.

On this trip, my objective was to photograph the same Liparis liliifolia plants that Alan and I had photographed a week earlier. On that particular trip, the flowers were just beginning to open, and I hoped that they would be in full bloom today:

When we all were assembled in the parking lot, we headed off to climb up the gentle slope of the seeps to visit the orchids that we had found last week. In no time (as is usual for this group), we found many other plants of interest — one of which was the beautiful Clematis viorna or Leather-Flower. This is a very strange looking, thick-petaled flower which I’ve seen along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. It was in abundance at this site and just beginning bloom:

Soon, we were scouting around to see what other treasures could be found. Alan had wandered off to check out a very wet portion of the seep, and he found a huge group of Drosera rotundifolia or Round-leaved Sundew at the edge of the seep.

This is a carnivorous plant whose round leaves are in reality sticky-pads covered with small tentacles, each of which has a tiny ball of viscous liquid on the end. This sticky substance is able to snare small insects, which is the diet of this carnivorous plant. By digesting insects, the plant is able to receive nutrition that it would otherwise be lacking.

In a bit, we began to turn our attention to locating the Lily-leaved Twayblade orchids that were up-slope. I arrived at the spot where I rememberd seeing the orchids last week, but due to the coloration of the flowers, they were exceedingly hard to spot nestled within other thick vegetation. I found that if I looked for the bright green leaves, I would have more success at finding them. Finally, I found the half-dozen or so plants in perfect shape; about 90% of the flowers were in open, and all of the open flowers were in flawless condition:

While several of us were photographing the Lily-leaved Twayblade orchids, Tom was proceeding up the slope to a spot where he rememberd seeing another orchid species; one that is very rarely seen in Georgia: Liparis loeselii or Loesel’s Twayblade orchid. Being another Liparis species, this is a cousin of Liparis liliifolia. In fact, they are known to hybridize farther north along the Blue Ridge Parkway. If we could find the plants in bloom and verify that they were, in fact, Liparis loeselii, it would be a new county record for Towns County and perhaps even a state record for Georgia.

After much searching, two plants were found, one in bloom and one juvenile plant. While the others were photographing the flowering plant, I searched in the same area and found a third plant, which was also in bloom. [Note: The insect on the flower is not a pollinator – it is just enjoying the view.]:

This species has an interesting way of producing seeds: There is a tiny “cap” over the paired pollinia on each flower. As the flowers mature, this protective cap falls off, exposing the pollinia. When rain drops fall on the structure housing the pollinia, they are washed down onto the stigma, and thus the plant is pollinated — no insect pollinator is required!

We spent much time congratulating ourselves and thanking Tom for locating the plants. But we had another place to visit before the impending thunderstorms arrived.

The second place we were planning to visit was a lake-side meadow/seep which contains one of the handfull of populations of the federally protected pitcher plant known as Sarracenia oreophila or Green Pitcher Plant. We were expecting to find the plants in flower, and we were not disappointed:

This is a property managed by The Nature Conservancy, and due to its extremely sensitive environment, we had to get permission to visit as well as secure the means to gain entrance through the locked gate. The walk to the site was fraught with problems: lots of briars and thorny wild rose, ticks galore, and upon reaching the lake, navigating through knee-deep water, boot-sucking mud, and dense vegetation. Due to the extremely heavy rains during April and May of this year, the lake was above full pool, and the edge of the water was approaching the pitcher plant population. However, the plants were apparently loving the elevated water table:

After spending more than an hour studying and photographing these wonderful plants, we packed up our gear, sloshed back through the high water, mud, and briars and arrived at our vehicles. It was suggested that we rendezvous at the local Dairy Queen for some milkshakes and good conversation. That is exactly what we did!

Another great field trip day out in the field with old friends and new friends. I’m finding retirement to be very special, filling my free time with neat trips to places I’ve only read about. With hugs all around, I parted the group and headed back home. It’s a 2.5-hour drive for me, but I had many good memories to keep me company…

— Jim