Mid-August, 2013 in the Green Swamp, Brunswick County, North Carolina — 2013-08-16

In a year which has seen record rainfall down South (it’s raining as I write this), I should not have been surprised to find it pouring rain on the day we had set aside to visit the Green Swamp Preserve. Allow me to rewind a bit. I had been asked to present a program about our recent two-week visit to Newfoundland, Canada, detailing our quest to find and photograph as many of the 45+ species of orchids that Newfoundland has to offer. It was a resounding success — we found 35 species and/or hybrid species of native orchids. Recent blog entries have detailed our two-week adventure.

The speaking “tour” included orchid societies in Durham, Fayetteville, and Wilmington, North Carolina. Before I chose which of the available months that were open for orchid society speakers, I already knew that August was a great month to be in that part of North Carolina. When Paul Welty, the person setting up the speaking engagements, told me that August was available, I jumped on it! That would put us near the Green Swamp during one of the prime dates for flowering orchids.

So, here Walter Ezell and I are in Wilmington on the day after my last presentation. And it is pouring rain… Will Stuart, a flickr friend from the Charlotte, North Carolina area, had made arrangements to attend the meeting in Wilmington, and had decided to join us the next morning on our trip to the Green Swamp. We met at our motel, each of us having just looked at the weather radar, and still decided to go ahead and give it a shot. My take was that there would be a break in the rainfall about noon, and so we headed off in the direction of a site that my friend, Skip Pudney, had found the previous week.

This site, east of Boiling Spring Lakes, North Carolina, has been fairly reliable for producing a number of really nice Platanthera conspicua or Southern White Fringed orchids. Here is an example:

A closeup look at these orchids reveals a wonderful assemblage of flower structures: petals, sepals, nectary opening, anthers, spur, lip, and fringe:

When we arrived at the first stop, it was still raining off and on, so Will reluctantly decided that he would just call it a day and head on home. He had already spent several days in the area and had experienced pretty good weather, so he saw no need to get wet while taking some additional photos of plants which he had already photographed. Walter and I made our good-byes to Will, and then proceeded to finish our photography in that area.

There was another area in Boiling Spring Lakes I wanted to check out, so we drove a few miles to what we call the “Railroad Tracks”. It is simply a ditch next to a set of railroad tracks, but it reliably contains a nice population of Habenaria repens or Water-spider orchid. It had begun to rain even harder, so all I did was jump out of the car and check the ditch for signs of the plants. Sure enough, I saw a dozen fairly nice ones growing in the ditch, but most of them were still in tight bud. I would not be photographing the plants at this site today…

It is a 5-hour trip back home, and I did not want to have to come back in a couple of days to photograph the fringed orchids that I knew were blooming in the Green Swamp Preserve, so we talked it over and decided that we would sit it out for a while to see if the weather would eventually cooperate. On the way over to the “Railroad Tracks” site, we had seen a couple of dozen Platanthera conspicua or White Fringed orchids in full bloom along a ditch at the edge of a golf course, and I wanted to revisit them and take a closer look. When we arrived, I pulled off the road. It was raining so hard that I just did not want to get out of the car to take any photographs.

It was only 9:30 am, and as we drove back toward Boiling Spring Lakes, we passed a local restaurant called Kopp’s Kwik Stop. Walter went inside and asked if we could stay there for an hour or so while we waited out the bad weather.

The restaurant was empty except for the staff, and they were fine with our being there. I ordered a fried-egg sandwich and settled down in a booth where I had a view of the outside so that I could monitor the weather. I continued to check the weather radar on my iphone, but things were not looking good. There were periods of heavy rain, and then it would tease us by letting up to just a sprinkle. Eventually, I could see a sizable break in the rain bands to the west, so we ordered lunch and prepared to make a break for it when the rain stopped.

When we finished lunch, the rain had stopped, so we headed back to the roadside near the golf course where we had seen the Platanthera conspicua growing in the ditch. We parked just down the road and walked back up to where we could easily cross the ditch. The plants were in pretty good shape condsidering that they had just missed the mower by only a foot or so. Some of the plants were showing signs of being a bit past bloom (lower flowers turning brown), but we found more than a few that were quite presentable:

Here are a few shots to show the roadside area where the plants were growing. We also found a few golf balls along the edge of the ditch. Just to the right, is the edge of the golf course:

As we were walking back to the car along the ditch and along a small pond that was on the edge of the golf course property, I spotted a large group of Habenaria repens or Water-spider orchids in full bloom! Having seen them just in bud at the “Railroad Tracks” site, I was quite surprised and pleased to see lots of flowers on the ones at this site. I took a number of shots of these strange orchids, but I had to bend over the water to get most of the shots. They were not within easy reach. Here is a closeup shot of this species from an image I took in my bog garden last year. The flowers do resemble the shape of a spider:

However, I was able to get some habitat shots:

The plants were doing quite well, particularly with all of the rain in the area over the summer. They do perfer a wet environment, and it is not unusual to find them growing in several inches of water:

In the image (above right), you can see a Pachydiplax longipennis or Blue Darter Dragonfly at the tip of one of the flower stems. Here is a closer version of that shot:

By the time we were done at the golf course site, the rain had just about completely finished, so we packed our gear and headed west toward the Green Swamp Preserve. Skip had told us that there were fantastic populations of both Platanthera ciliaris or Yellow Fringed orchid as well as Gymnadeniopsis integra or Yellow Fringeless orchid in full bloom this year, and that’s where we were heading.

The site is owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy, and they do a great job of maintaining the grassy savannahs by setting prescribed burns on a periodic basis. For three years in a row, they have burned Big Island, one of the most productive of the longleaf pine savannahs in the 16,000-acre preserve. The result of the prescribed burns is that the woody vegetation that competes with the orchids and other wildflowers is kept in check. Normally, the area is burned on alternate years, but for whatever reason (thank you TNC!), they have made consecutive-year burns which has caused an explosion in orchid bloom.

Here is a wide-angle shot of Big Island Savannah in the Green Swamp Preserve in early fall:

As we entered the savannah, we immediately saw orange “torches” rising above the thick, wiregrass:

These are the flowers of the beautiful, Platanthera ciliaris or Yellow Fringed orchid. Now, you might ask yourself, why is it named Yellow Fringed orchid and not Orange Fringed orchid, especially since the flowers are orange and not yellow. Well, it has both names, but I prefer to call it Yellow Fringed orchid, since that is the prevalent name in this area of the world. Here is a series of shots I made of one particularly nice plant:

There are many different shapes to the inflorescence of Platanthera ciliaris on Big Island. Some are more densely packed than others. Af few are almost pyramidal shaped, while others have a rounded, cylindrical shape. Here are a few shots that show some of the differences:

Can you find the Green Lynx spider on the flowers in the above right image?

There were a number of cases where there were a pair of flowering plants that were positioned to make a good photograph:

And occasionally, the blackened bark of the local longleaf pine trees makes for a nice backdrop:

Years ago, I saw the image of a blooming Platanthera ciliaris that was taken from directly above the flowers. I thought it was a clever perspective, so I began to take some shots in that fashion on every visit I made to the Green Swamp. Here are a few above-the-plant shots taken to show the different spacing between flowers on plants having just a few flowers and those that are densely packed:

Also in the savannah were tiny, bright yellow “torches”. They were shorter and were slightly below the top of the tall savannah wire grass. These flowers belong to the species Gymnadeniopsis integra or Yellow Fringeless orchid. This plant is quite rare in parts of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, but in a good year, they can be found by the hundreds in Big Island Savannah. And this is a good year!

Where Platanthera ciliaris has a lip with long fringe around the edge, Gymnadeniopsis integra has a lip with no fringe. The edge of the lip is slightly crenulate or dentate (having a toothlike or serrated edge). The color can best be described as a vivid, pure yellow. In other populations (for instance, in New Jersey), the color is described as slightly more golden or saffron. I have noticed, though, that as the flowers age, they take on a more golden hue..

I did manage to find a few instances of two or three plants growing very near each other:

As we found with Platanthera ciliaris or Yellow Fringed orchid, the inflorescences of Gymnadeniopsis integra or Yellow Fringeless orchid take on several different shapes:

Well, we managed to dodge the rain until about 4:00 pm, when it started sprinking lightly. We had finished our work and were ready to head back to the vehicle. What a day! Our luck had held together one more time. I have to say though, without the support of close friends and acquaintences who keep each other informed of special sightings of wildflowers and orchids, life would not be so beautiful. I’m constantly asked how I manage to find so many beautiful wildflowers, and I always answer that it is through closely networking with like-minded individuals that we all gain some benefit. I’m very thankful for the support and friendship that I receive from the other orchidophiles that I have met, and I hope to be able to repay them one day for their generosity…

— Jim