Early Spring in the Francis Marion National Forest — two orchids, other wildflowers, and one special bird — 2015-03-08

Who wouldn’t want to go out on a sunny, 75-degree F (24-degree C), blue-sky day? That’s just what I found on my latest day trip to the Atlantic Coastal Plain of South Carolina. In particular, I would be visiting a portion of the 250,000 acre Francis Marion National Forest in Berkeley and Charleston Counties. What I was looking for was the appearance of two early orchid species I had seen during this period of time in previous years: Neottia biflora (formerly Listera australis) known as Southern Twayblade orchid and Corallorhiza wisteriana or Spring Coralroot orchid.

We have had a roller-coaster winter with lots and lots of rain and rather cool for us in South Carolina. However, we had nothing like you folks in the Northeast have experienced. We have a saying in the South, “Bless your pea-picking heart!”, that’s supposed to make you feel better about your condition, but I expect the only thing that will bring relief is for you to see green grass and Spring flowers. It will be there very soon, I hear…

The 4-hour trip down to the coast was rather uneventful but punctuated with thoughts of finding nothing to photograph. It wouldn’t be the first time for that to happen to me. At my age, I suppose I’ve learned to take it in stride, but it’s still a pain to drive so far to see only buds or no plants at all. In any case, it was a glorious day, and I was just happy to be out of the house and away from the pressures of daily life. Yes, even we retired folks feel the effects of the daily grind, especially when we are cooped up for the winter.

I arrived near the location just before 11:00 am (or was it noon, since we had just lost an hour thanks to Daylight Saving Time), and I gathered my gear for the half-mile hike to the site. I had earlier bought a new pair of Duck Boots, and I thought these would come in handy what with the copious amount of rain we had experienced in the past month. The property is located beside a fairly busy highway, but once I was I the woods, the sounds and sights of Sunday morning traffic quickly faded away. As I expected, there was plenty of water on the always soggy ground. It is a flood plain situated near a black-water creek, and I was greeted with “squishing” sounds as I walked.

It was not long before I spotted my first orchid. It was Neottia bifolia or Southern Twayblade orchid. These little guys are fairly small, 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 cm) tall, and due to their color, they blend in quite well with the leaf litter of the open woods. After having my orchid pattern-recognition kick in to full gear, I began to see more of them scattered here and there. Here is an image of the first one I saw:

Actually, it is a pair of plants. Multiple plants or clusters of them are fairly rare to see from this orchid species, but there they were. The less than one-half-inch (< 1 cm) flowers of these particular plants were a rather odd color, being slightly pinkish rather than the maroon color that is most often found. This site tends to produce flowers of a wide variety of colors ranging from pink, to tan, to yellow-green, to deep maroon and seemingly every color in between.

Here are a few more shots showing the variety of color I saw on this trip:

I did find one that was rather large for the plants at this site, coming in at more than 8 inches (20 cm) tall!:

This one had a Zen-like grace that I hoped to capture by just showing a portion of the flowering stem.

Of course, there were a few plants that were just coming into bloom. Here is one of those:

To give you a better idea as to the shape of the one-half-inch flower, I attempted a close-up with my new Olympus TG-3 point-and-shoot set on super-macro mode:

As I was photographing a few of the many dozens of Southern Twayblade orchid plants around me, I noticed a few flowers which showed detached pollinaria on the flower petals. I understand that this orchid species is pollinated by fungus gnats, but I didn’t see any of that going on during this trip. However, I suspect that such a relatively large object attached to the head of a fungus gnat is a perceived irritant, and it probably wastes no time in ridding itself of these burdensome pollen sacs on the nearest flower part — the petal or sepal. Here are a few shots of some detached pollinaria on the flower parts of Southern Twayblade orchids:

Finally finishing up with the Southern Twayblade orchids, I set off to attempt to locate plants and flowers of Corallorhiza wisteriana or Spring Coralroot orchid. On a trip to this location several years ago, my friend Neil Jacobs and his wife Jen Modliszeski (whom I haven’t heard from for a while, hint, hint) managed to find a really nice population of Spring Coralroot orchids near where the Southern Twayblade orchids bloom. Over the past few years, this population has dwindled considerably, and this year I managed to locate only a handful of plants. Fortunately, one was far enough along to show two fully opened flowers:

The remainder of the plants were either a week or so away from showing open flowers or still in tight bud:

There were a couple of other wildflowers that I had run across while photographing the orchids. One of these was Trillium maculatum or Spotted Wakerobin. This is the most common of the Trillium species found in the area. The plants have leaves mottled in shades of green, and each plant produces a single, bright maroon flower. This species sometimes forms large populations of plants, but today I saw only a few groups, and most of the plants were juveniles and would not bloom for another few years:

Here is a shot of a portion of one of the large groups of Spotted Wakerobin I found:

Nearby, I found groups of our state’s most common Heartleaf, called Hexastylis arifolia or Little Brown Jugs. There are only 6 out of our state’s 46 counties that do not show reports of this species, and I suspect that with diligent searching, they could be found there, as well. I love the common names associated with this species — very descriptive. Here is what the flowers look like a week or so before they are mature:

The flowers of most Hexastylis species are produced at ground level, which in rich woods means under the leaf litter. They are thought to be pollinated by wasps or flies, but what I find most interesting is the mechanism that the plant uses for seed dispersal. Like another forest species, Trillium, the seeds of Hexastylis have a fleshy lipid and protein rich elaiosome which acts as a nutrition reward for the insects involved in seed dispersal — usually ants. These ants take the seeds into their nests, eat the elaiosome and bury the seeds, increasing the likelihood of germination and reducing seed predation by other insects. How cool is that!?!

Here is a shot I took at another location a couple of years ago of the mature flowers of Hexastylis arifolia:

The glossy, 3-inch (7.5 cm), evergreen leaves of this species are very attractive with their pattern of light green mottling and venation:

Keep in mind that it was necessary for me to remove the topmost layer of leaf litter to expose the flowers. I replaced it when I was finished.

It was now time for me to head back to the truck and eat my lunch. It was such a wonderful day, that I decided to drive deeper into the heart of the Francis Marion NF. It was still early for even the earliest of the roadside Spring wildflowers down there, but I did manage to find a couple of huge populations of the daisy-like, Chaptalia tomentosa or Wooly Sunbonnets. I think the name, “Wooly” comes from the silvery, downy underside of the leaf. Along one section of roadside, I saw many hundreds of these creamy white flowers:

The day was filled with photography and just plain driving through the National Forest with the windows down, the sunroof open, and my favorite radio station blaring in my ears. Here is a typical view of the longleaf pines lining one of the many roads transecting the forest:

It was getting to be late afternoon, and I had a 4-hour trip home ahead of me, but I wanted to stop by one of the locations where I knew there would be a Pandion haliaetus or Osprey nest. There are several common names for the Osprey: Fish Eagle, Fish Hawk, Sea Hawk, and River Hawk. Although their main source of nutrition is fish, they will satisfy their appetite from time to time by catching small birds.

There are a number of power lines that zig-zag across the forest, and most of them are supported by wooden poles and other structures. Any time the power lines go near a river or canal, more likely than not, there will be an Osprey nest built on it. Last year, for some reason, the power line crews cleared off all of the older nests, but the resourceful Osprey have come back and rebuilt their nests. Some of the nests used to be huge — several feet across and several feet high. Perhaps the weight was a concern of the power company. Regardless, I’m happy to see that they are back. This shot was taken across a river about a quarter-mile (~400 meters) away — I couldn’t get any closer to this nest. I wish I had a “birding” lens, but I did the best with what I had at the time. It’s a sign of a healthy environment, I think, to have families of Osprey in the area.

Another wonderful day in the woods… I can’t help but relish these times I have set aside to commune with nature. And it is even more pleasurable for me to be able to share these adventures with you through my blog. Next week, I will host a friend, Lee Casebere, and his wife Pat from Indianapolis, Indiana on a trip to see and photograph the amazing variety of spring ephemerals we have in the upstate of South Carolina. Stay tuned to this spot!

–Jim