Three spring orchid species in the Green Swamp, Brunswick County, North Carolina — 2013-06-16

After returning from a week-long orchid photography trip to California, I was not even settled in back home when I heard about a rare Spiranthes species that was recently rediscovered in the Green Swamp Preserve, Brunswick County, North Carolina. The preserve is owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy.

My friend, Neil Jacobs, is quite the orchid hunter. He was checking out Big Island, one of the largest savannahs in the Green Swamp Preserve, when he ran across a Spiranthes plant which he identified as Spiranthes eatonii or Eaton’s Ladies’-tresses orchid. This dainty little species was named by the botanist Oakes Ames (1874-1950) after Alvah Augustus Eaton (1865–1908), a botanist who died at an early age, but one who described many plant species during his lifetime. The original discovery was made in the early 1900s during one of Eaton’s several field trip explorations to Florida. This species had not been seen in the Green Swamp Preserve for many decades. It is strictly a coastal plain species historically found from Virginia along the Atlantic coast to Florida, then along the Gulf coast to Texas. It is not plentiful, but it may be more frequent than reported due to its small size.

I contacted my photographer buddy, Kelvin Taylor, and arranged to meet him in the Green Swamp so that we might try to locate and photograph this orchid species. So, I made the 5-hour drive on Sunday morning, June 16, 2013. We met at the usual meeting place: the borrow pit along Hwy. 211 in the Green Swamp Preserve. After unloading our gear, we walked across the highway and proceeded up the two-track path to the site where Neil told me he had found the plants a week prior to our trip.

After an intensive search, Kelvin and I finally found a few of the plants growing in a wet area next to a fire break at the edge of the savannah. I cannot begin to tell you how difficult these 1/8-inch (~3 mm) flowers were to find. The flower stem is only about 12-15 inches (30-40 cm) tall. Considering that the grasses and ferns in the immediate area are as tall or taller than this, you can have some appreciation as to the difficulty we experiened.

Here is a shot of the flowers of one of the twenty or so plants that we eventually located:

Like other Spiranthes species, Spiranthes eatonii presents its flowers in three forms: Secund, loose spiral, or tight spiral.

Here is an example of each of these forms:

While photographing one of the plants, a halictid bee or sweat bee lit on the stem and proceeded to inspect each open flower. Whether or not this bee is considered to be a pollinator, I am not sure — it is so much larger than the flowers:

Finishing up our photography of the Spiranthes eatonii plants, we decided to further explore the eastern-most portions of the savannah. We soon discovered many Calopogon orchid plants in full bloom. The majority of them were of the species Calopogon pallidus or Pale Grass-pink orchid. We were later to travel across the county to a site called Myrtle Head Savannah, where we found many thousands of this same species in bloom.

The following image shows a “typical” Calopogon pallidus flower; basically white or light pink with a touch or magenta or purple:

Note the swept-back and recurved lateral sepals of these 1-inch (2.5 cm) tall flowers. There can be as many as eight flowers on a stem with no more than two of them being in bloom at any one time. These light-colored flowers were very easy to spot against the ground which was blackened by the prescribed burn made in early May of 2013. Had it not been for the massive swarm of mosquitoes at that site, I would have stayed longer, enjoying this exceptional bloom of orchids.

Here is a selection of images showing the many color forms this plant assumes:

I even managed to catch a visiting sweat bee — probably too small to be a pollinator — just enjoying the same view we were enjoying:

Of the white-flowered forms we saw (and there were many) we found only a couple that I consider to be the “true” white form — with absolutely no sign of yellow color in the deceptive pseudopollen at the apex of the upward-pointing lip. It is called pseudopollen, since it is not actually pollen, but a structure that fools pollinators into believing that it is pollen, thereby attracting them to light on the plant. Here is a close-up of that plant:

There was still one site that I wanted to check before I left for home. That site is an open roadside off of Hwy. 130 near the village of Shallotte, North Carolina. This site was first pointed out to me by David McAdoo after one of his many visits to the Green Swamp. David, who lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, had begun visiting the area long before I even knew it existed. He has been very generous with his directions to many wonderful botanical spots in Brunswick County.

It was obvious when we drove by the mile-long road side site, that the Calopogon tuberosus or Common Grass-pink orchid were doing quite well at that location. There were many color forms at this site — most of them being the “typical” medium magenta color. However, there are always some suprises in store when seeing Calopogon species in that area. Here are a few of the more unusual color forms that I photographed during our visit:

My favorites are the very dark ones and the very light ones. Speaking of light ones, we found several white forms and an unusual “party-colored” form with purple scattered on a white background:

No trip to the Green Swamp area is complete without seeing some fine Dionaea musciplua or Venus’ Fly-trap plants. They are abundant in Brunswick County, and at this time of the year, they are quite easy to find by looking for the flower stem poking out of the grasses beside the road:

While inspecting one of the many Venus’ Fly-trap plants at this road-side site, I was startled to find what is probably the largest one I’ve ever seen in the wild. The monster traps on this plant were almost two inches long! Here is a shot of the traps with Kelvin’s finger behind to give some scale. I had to warn him not to get his finger too close, just in case…

Well, the sun was setting, and I still had 5 hours of driving ahead of me before I reached home. I think Kelvin and I had a very successful day botanizing in the Green Swamp. Any time of the year, except for the months of January and February, one can always find something interesting to photograph down there. And, it’s always fun to share the experience with a good friend — especially one that knows plants and photography. There is a small group of us who meet in the area at different times of the year, always exlporing familiar sites hoping to find something new and unusal. That is truly one of my favorite places on earth…

— Jim