Small Whorled Pogonia – a world-wide rarity found in north Georgia — 2014-05-17

Sometimes things don’t work out as you had planned — sometimes they do…

On Saturday, May 17, Alan Cressler, Max Medley, and I met Flickr friend Andrew Gibson in the Walmart parking lot in Ellijay, Georgia. The expressed purpose of Ohio native, Andrew Gibson, was to see and photograph a rare orchid that has been on his bucket list for quite a while. The orchid in question is Isotria medeoloides or Small Whorled Pogonia orchid. This particular orchid is quite rare and when it is found, there is never a large number of plants in the population. It is even on the federal endangered species list. It is also the “cousin” to the more common, Isotria verticillata or Large Whorled Pogonia orchid which I had photographed a few weeks prior to this trip (see this blog entry for images of the Large Whorled Pogonia orchid).

Alan and Max, both natives of Georgia, are very knowledgable botanists and naturalists. I’m very fortunate to know both of them. Last year, Alan had taken me to a couple of Georgia sites for this orchid and the timing was perfect — great plants at the peak of flowering. So, when Andrew contacted Alan about a possible visit, he figured that mid-May was the best time to see them in bloom.

We gathered at the Walmart parking lot, pooled our gear into two vehicles, and set out for the first of two locations where this elusive plant had been found. Alan and Max rode in Alan’s car and Andrew joined me in my truck. The day had begun as bright and cloud-free, but as we headed out, dark clouds were gathering toward the west. Cloudy, overcast days are perfect for photographing wildflowers, but rainy days are not. We all hoped that the unpredicted rain would hold off for at least a little while.

After a period of time traversing the winding mountain roads, we finally reached our first orchid location. Donning our camera gear, we headed off down the trail through the thick undergrowth. About a mile later, we split off the trail into the woods, being very careful to look where we were stepping so that we would avoid crushing the small rare orchids that we were looking for.

Soon, we reached the spot where Alan and I had photographed the orchids last year. Today, there were eight plants at the site — five of which were in bloom! Good news! However, there was some not-so-good news as well: They were about 4-5 days past peak bloom and not looking so fresh. This was not a problem for Andrew, though. He had never seen this orchid species, and he was excited to photograph them, peak bloom or not. Here is a shot of Andrew with his camera focused on one of the flowering plants:

As I stated, the flowers of the plants at this location were not in the best of shape. Having said that, we were still gratified to know that these 3-4 inch (7.5-10 cm) tall plants were doing well and that the population appeared to be healthy. Here shots of three of the best looking flowers:

We stayed at this location for about an hour until the rain began to sprinkle on us. Thinking that we would be seeing rain all day long, we decided to pack up and head to the second of the two orchid sites to see if those plants would be in better shape.

To get there, Alan knew a “short cut” up and over the mountains. It is a well-maintained but still rather tortuous gravel road that cuts directly through some gorgeous wooded habitat. Along the way, we stopped several times for Andrew to strike off and photograph several items from his life list of flowering plants. I had to keep reminding myself that Andrew is from a part of the country that has quite a different array of flowering plants, and that a species that is common for us might just be one that he had not had the opportunity to see and photograph.

One of the plants that he had seen in Ohio is Rhododendron calendulaceum or Flame Azalea. In the Southern Appalachian Mountains, the species reaches its flowering peak in May. On this day, as we gained altitude in the mountains of north Georgia, we began to see many flowering plants of this species. The range of color was absolutely amazing, and it’s easy to see how it got its common name, Flame Azalea:

Some of the plants were as tall as 15 feet (5 meters) and were literally loaded with brightly colored clusters of flowers. The species produces flowers which range from pure yellow to vibrant red, with the most common color being a bright yellow-orange — all easy to spot from the road.

After finally getting our fill of these gorgeous flowers, we packed our gear and headed to the final orchid location of the day. This is a site where we had found two or three of the elusive Small Whorled Pogonia orchid in prior years, so we held high hopes that these would not let us down. Alan figure that since these were growing at a higher altitude, they might be less far along in their blooming.

When we arrived, we wasted no time in climbing the hillside to see what awaited us. Well, we were pleasantly surprised to find three of the five orchid plants in great shape! I was really relieved for Andrew’s sake that he finally had some good plants to photograph. He had traveled 7 hours to come down from Ohio to see these rare orchids, and now he had an opportunity to catch them at their best. Here are some shots of those three plants:

Here is a shot of one of the plants in front of Alan’s camera and shading umbrella. Although it was not needed much on this trip, the umbrella acts to diffuse the sunlight, thereby reducing harsh shadows from the images. This setup should give you some sense of the size of the plants:

As Andrew and I were busily occupying ourselves with these tiny beauties, Alan and Max had scouted the immediate area and found several Trillium catesbaei or Catesby’s Trillium. I was surprised to see them still in bloom this late in the season, but Andrew was quite thrilled to see them and strike off another species from his life list:

After an hour or so, we packed our gear and headed back to our vehicles. Nearby, was a shaded section of the woods near a creek. Here, we found a number of groups of Hexastylis shuttleworthii or Largeflower Heartleaf. This common name is quite appropriate because the flowers are quite large (more than 1 inch or 2.5 cm wide) and the leaf is, indeed, heart-shaped:

Although the orchids at the first location were not up to my expectations, they were good enough to give Andrew the sense of their size and their environment. Fortunately, the ones at our last stop exceeded his expectations. I always get great pleasure from showing off the wonderful natural heritage of our Southern Appalachian Mountains — especially to another orchid enthusiast, and I am really glad that Alan included me on this botanizing trip.

Well, it was time to head back on my 3-hour drive to Greenville, South Carolina. But as we parted company, I remarked to Andrew that I had always enjoyed meeting up with my Flickr contacts. Even though we had never met in person, I knew by Andrew’s superb photography and his wonderful blog, we would hit it off. What an end to another great day in the woods with great friends and great flowering plants…

–Jim