Native Orchids at Mt. Mitchell State Park and along the Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina — 2014-06-25

Walter Ezell and I left Greenville, South Carolina at daybreak for the mountains of North Carolina — specifically to Mt. Mitchell State Park and other locations along the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway. Although the Parkway is our longest National Park, it is only a few hundred yards wide in several sections. Our main objective was to photograph the Platanthera psycodes known as Small Purple Fringed orchids that grow in profusion on the access road to Mt. Mitchell.

The two-hour drive up was fairly uneventful. But, as we neared the Mt. Mitchell turnoff from the Blue Ridge Parkway, we could see that it was pretty much socked-in, weather-wise. We had not planned on going all the way to the peak, but the weather was anything but delightful — dense fog and strong wind — we were literally in the clouds:

Prior to getting to the Mt. Mitchell access road, we managed to locate a few Platanthera grandiflora or Large Purple Fringed orchids growing beside the Parkway. They were growing in a ditch and were just missed by the local mowing crew. At this location, the Large Purple Fringed orchid plants happen to be smaller than the Small Purple Fringed orchid plants. Go figure… The name is a misnomer anyway, since the plants and flowers of both species vary widely in their size, so a link to their identification must rest in another area. Fortunately it is easy to differentiate the two species: The Large Purple Fringed orchid flower has a circular opening to the nectary tube while the Small Purple Fringed orchid has a “pinched”, or barbell-shaped opening. There are other more subtle differences, but for now the difference in the shape of the nectary opening is all you really need to know for identification.

In any case, here are some images of the three Large Purple Fringed orchid plants we found:

After we turned off onto the Mt. Mitchell access road, we began to see spikes of purple flowers in the ditch, especially on the left side of the road. Most of the orchids were in groups of three or four, but there were some larger groups as well. These were the expected Platanthera psycodes or Small Purple Fringed orchid. Although there is no good reason that they should not be growing there, I have never seen the Large Purple Fringed orchid on Mt. Mitchell, although they grow just a few miles away along the Parkway.

Here are some shots of the Small Purple Fringed orchids we found in the ditch:

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is this: Plants that grow in a more shaded area are usually much taller than the plants that grow in full sunlight. However, the flowers of the sun-growing plants are usually more densely packed on the bloom stem.

There are a number of color varieties of the Small Purple Fringed orchids on Mt. Mitchell, and we saw some of them, but we were unable to finish our photography project due to the horrible weather. So, we decided to duck into the park’s Restaurant for a bite of lunch, hoping that the weather would improve. It seemed to just get worse, so after lunch, we determined that it would be better for us to head on up the Parkway to some of the other orchid sites we had planned to visit and to return to Mt. Mitchell before it closed for the day at 9:00 pm. So, we drove back down the mountain and headed north on the Parkway, threatening weather dogging us for the first few dozen miles of our journey.

The next destination was Grandfather Mountain State Park. One of my Flickr friends had visited this area a week prior to our trip, and she had photographed North America’s southernmost population of Platanthera orbiculata or Pad Leaf orchid also know as Large Round-leaved orchid. I had almost given up on ever finding this one in North Carolina until I saw her images. I had photographed the leaves nearby on the side of the Parkway in 2005, but I had not been able to find that particular plant since then.

We arrived at the site and were still experiencing a bit of a drizzle. I’ve never been daunted by a drizzle, so we loaded our gear and started our hike to the site. It was a hike through a wonderland of towering Rhododendron maximum or Rosebay Rhododendron. Making our way up the mountain, I kept thinking that we might see Neottia smallii or Appalachian Twayblade orchid. I had recently photographed it in the Pisgah National Forest near Brevard, North Carolina and this was a similar habitat. The wet woods with the low-hanging Rhododenron branches provides the perfect habitat for this diminutive orchid. In fact, it is always found under these branches, hiding in the darkness of the woods.

I am quickly coming to the conclusion that Neottia smallii is the most common orchid to be found in the Carolina mountains. It is not seen on a frequent basis because of its small size and its insistence on hiding in the dark, but I believe it can be found (with only a bit of searching) under almost any Rhododendron that is directly next to a stream or seep. At this location, it was virtually everywhere — sometimes in groups of a dozen or more blooming plants! I’ve never seen so many of them at one time. Here are a few shots of some of the plants we saw:

Here is a shot of one of several large patches of this orchid that we saw. It is nestled within the leaves under a large Rhododendron:

We continued up the trail and finally arrived at the site of three large Platanthera orbiculata or Pad Leaf orchid specimens. What a sight! Here were these rare (in the Carolina mountains) orchids in full bloom. These plants were about 2 feet (60 cm) tall, and just loaded with greenish white flowers. But what was the most impressive part was the size of the pair of basal leaves:

That is Walter’s hand which was not fully able to cover the spread of just one of the round, glossy leaves! A very impressive orchid plant…

Here are come closer shots:

We spent about an hour at this site, enjoying being in the presence of such a gorgeous orchid specimen. When we finished photographing these beauties, we packed our gear and made our way back to the truck. By the time we reached the truck, it had stopped drizzling rain, and we could actually see patches of blue sky.

The next site was about two hours north on the Parkway. Walter, Alan Cressler, and I had visited the site around this time last year, so we were looking forward to finding Platanthera lacera or Ragged Fringed orchid at the site. Neil Jacobs, a photographer friend of ours, had done some research in a nearby university herbarium and had found a record of this orchid species at this site. Some older herbarium specimen sheets mention just a vague location for specimens, but the one record that he had seen actually named a particular Blue Ridge Parkway overlook where these orchids grow.

We arrived, unloaded our gear and set off for the edge of the woods. The hillside had been mowed, but at the edge of the tall grass were several of the orchid plants in full bloom. Whew! I was thinking that none of them had survived the mower. I photographed those plants and then went across the road into a field where we had also seen several plants in the past. Here is what I found:

In that same field, was a large population of very sweet-smelling Asclepias syriaca or Common Milkweed. As I approached the plants, I noticed that on one of the flower clusters there was a large Speyeria cybele or Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly taking an afternoon snack:

Nearby was another Milkweed species, the bright orange-red Asclepias tuberosa or Butterfly Milkweed:

Soon, it occurred to me that we had better head back if we expected to revisit Mt. Mitchell to shoot those orchids that we saw but had to pass over because of the wild weather. So, we packed up and headed south on the Parkway. Walter soon calculated that we might not make it back in time before the park closed at 9:00 pm, but I tried my best. I was making pretty good time on the Parkway when a slow-moving vehicle pulled out onto the road, just ahead of me. I was soon able to pass the vehicle, but that same thing happened several times not only with automobiles but with deer! I surely did not want a run-in with a deer.

Regardless, we turned off the Parkway into the Mt. Mitchell access road about 8:40 pm — time enough to get to the spot and take one picture. Well, there is a security gate about 1 mile (1.6 km) up the road. Here was a park ranger signaling us to stop, apparently he was there to close the gate. I rolled down my window and asked if he could give us 10 minutes to drive further up the road, promising I’d be back down to the gate by 9:00 pm. He proceeded to tell us that there was another gate (just out of view) which was already closed and locked a few minutes earlier. Seeing that we would not be able to finish our photography project, we thanked the ranger and headed back to the Parkway, satisfied that we had at least a few good shots of the local orchids.

On our trip down the mountain, we ran into some of the most dense fog I had ever driven through. For about 30 miles (48 km), we had to slow down to 20 mph (32 kph) and hug the center line, since it was the only thing we could see. We soon made it out of the fog and back to civilization. In a couple of hours, we were back home — tired, but smiling and reliving this full day of botanizing in the North Carolina mountains…

–Jim