Day 2 — Orchids on the “Rock” — Newfoundland — 2013-07-04

Today, we would be leaving Channel-Port aux Basques and heading up the west coast of Newfoundland with our first stop at J.T. Cheeseman Provincial Park. We woke early and noticed a pretty nice sunrise out of our hotel window:

Of course, Edna’s Road Bog was on the way, so we had to make a short visit for the last time. I was still looking to find additional white forms and lavender forms of Arethusa bulbosa or Dragon’s Mouth orchid, and these would all be past bloom when we come back this way in two weeks.

After a couple of prior visits, and now being more familiar with the bogs at this site, I quickly found a couple of the white forms (one single and one pair) and a lavender form:

With these under my belt, it was now time to drive the dozen or so kilometers to J.T. Cheeseman Provincial Park. Having never been there before, we ended up driving past the entrance and had to turn around and come back to find it. The signage is adequate, but I was expecting to see a large roadside sign, not the small, shingle-type sign at the gravel road entrance to the park.

J.T. Cheeseman Provincial Park is designed to be a camping area, but it has a wonderful 2 kilometer walking trail through rock outcrops and really nice bogs:

Even though the walking trail winds through the bogs, it is still necessary to plow through the tuckamore to reach the interior of most of the bogs:

Wearing sturdy, ankle-high boots at Cheeseman is a good idea, especially for ankle support. It’s like walking on thick, lumpy foam rubber, and it is quite easy to twist your foot on the uneven surface. Otherwise, any good hiking boots will do at this location. The bogs are composed of a heavy layer of Sphagnum moss that has built up over the eons, but the bogs are not so wet that you will sink in very deep. Of course, if you kneel or sit down, you will feel the water soak through your clothing, leaving a wet spot…

At the first bog we encountered, we saw dozens of Platanthera blepharigottis or White fringed orchids just beginning to show open flowers. The one pictured below is growing near a Sarracenia purpurea or Purple pitcher plant. I will mention that Purple pitcher plants are found in great numbers in almost every bog we encountered. We could easily see the tall, dark red flowers of many of these pitcher plants in the bogs as we drove past them. As with almost all of the orchid species in Newfoundland — especially those growing near the coast — the plants are quite short and compact. These White fringed orchids are no exception. They are about three to four inches tall, much shorter than the two-foot plants of this same species that grow farther south in the United States:

One even was blooming next to a single Dragon’s Mouth orchid:

At the next bog we encountered (that’s Chris Davidson kneeling in the moss to photograph some nice White fringed orchids), we found a large number of very pretty Dragon’s Mouth orchids:

I even managed to find another excellent example of the scarce, lavender form of Dragon’s Mouth orchid, Arethusa bulbosa forma subcaerulea:

Walter, Chris, and I continued hiking the trail and soon saw several Cypripedium acaule or Pink Lady’s-Slipper orchid. Only one was in good enough shape to photograph:

I particularly like the ones in Newfoundland, because the pouch/lip is always a darker rose color rather than the light pink color we are used to seeing in the Carolinas. This one was no exception.

After hiking another kilometer or so, we came to an area where my friend, Tom Nelson, had seen the rare Platanthera orbiculata forma lehorsii on a previous trip to Cheeseman several years ago. His directions were spot on, but we did not find the plants. I suspect they were only in bud and not blooming, making them quite difficult to find in the thick bog grasses.

So we hiked on, the path taking us to a high overlook on a rocky outcrop. On the edge of this outcrop, we spotted a group of Abies balsamea or Canadian balsam in fruit. The bluish-gray cones stand upright on the uppermost limbs, making it easy to identify this species.

As a side note, we used to look for Canadian balsam to use as a Christmas tree, since the branches are separated by enough space to allow the decorations to hang and swing. Many years ago, there was a tree farmer who would bring a truck loaded with these trees from Maine to South Carolina every year just after Thanksgiving Day. We can no longer find this species for sale. I suppose most people now prefer the conical-shaped and dense Scotch Pine, because that is all that seems to be available.

In addition to the Canadian balsam trees, we saw a number of a common conifer called Larix laricina or Tamarack larch in fruit. The bright red cones were so colorful that I just had to photograph them:

While I was photographing the Tamarack larch, Chris had wandered off the trail toward another bog near a coastal inlet. He came back reporting that he had seen Arethusa bulbosa blooming next to last year’s seed capsules. I had wanted to be able to photograph this, so we headed off trail to the bog. We had to plow through tall vegetation growing in a ditch, then wade through dense grasses to where large groups of Arethusa bulbosa could be seen growing in the bog. A quick search showed us several groups of plants with seed capsules:

Nearby, there were a number of very nice groups of Arethusa bulbosa, begging to be photographed. 😉

After two days of seeing so many of this species, I really thought I would become weary of photographing it. But throughout the remainder of the trip, I was always eager to see another one in bloom.

We still had a good distance to travel to our Bed & Breakfast in Cape St. George on the Port au Port Peninsula, where we were expecting to see large numbers of Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens or Large Yellow Lady’s-Slipper orchids. So, we packed up our gear and headed north on the Trans Canada Highway…

— Jim