Upstate New Hampshire – Day 1 of the Native Orchid Conference symposium field trips — 2015-06-02

On June 2, 2015, we began our annual Native Orchid Conference symposium. This year, it was being held in the sleepy little town of Gorham, New Hampshire — deep in the mountains and back woods of New England. I have to admit that I was not expecting the overwhelming success that it turned out to be. The reason for my low expectations was that the theme of the symposium was based on a single orchid species, Cypripedium acaule or Pink Lady’s-slipper orchid. But, man, was I and many others surprised! More about this later.

We (the nearly 70 participants) have one person to thank for putting this all together, and that is conference chairperson Jean Stefanik. Jean lives in the area and has many wildflower connections with the New England Wildflower Society as well as a number of other conservation-minded organizations. Last year, at the annual board meeting, Jean bravely volunteered to host the 2015 symposium when we found ourselves without a good plan for the upcoming annual meeting. Being the hard worker that she is, she managed to round up a wonderful slate of speakers who wowed us with their knowledge and humor. The symposium consists (usually) of two days of speakers and two days of local field trips. Having helped set up and lead a couple of symposium field trips myself, I know how easy it is to sweat bullets wondering if the orchids are going to cooperate and bloom during the scheduled field trips. The weather — maybe even six months prior to the event might even have an impact on the bloom time and intensity of the flowering. And I know no one who can predict with any assurance whether the flowers will “behave” or if they will be a no-show.

However, all worked out exceedingly well, not only for the star of the show, the Pink Lady’s-slipper orchids, but also for several other surprise orchid species.

Down South, we have many populations of Pink Lady’s-slipper orchids, but what we don’t have is the white or alba flower form of this plant. New England, especially New Hampshire, has the white form in spades! My conservative guess is that fully 50-60% of the Pink Lady’s-slipper orchid flowers (at least in the region we visited) were white ones. In some specific locations that we visited that figure approaches 90%! That’s absolutely amazing, since I know of only a couple of locations in North Carolina that have just a handful of white-flowering plants – and they are not always reliable bloomers.

Here is a shot of a white form followed by the typical dark pink form for comparison:

Pink Lady’s-slipper orchid (white or alba form)

Pink Lady’s-slipper orchid (typical dark pink form)

For me, Walter Ezell, Jim and Kathi Hayward, the day began with a visit to a site that had been pointed out to us the day before during the field trip sites discussion. I might mention here, that most of the field trips (on the field trip days) were self-guided. We had been given sufficient information and directions to a dozen or more places that we could visit and expect to see orchids in flower. The first location for us was just across the parking lot at the turn off to Great Gulf Wilderness Trail. This was about 6 miles (10 km) from the conference headquarters. At this site, there was a mowed area about 20 feet (6 meters) by about 40 feet (12 meters) with the white form of the Pink Lady’s-slipper orchid sprinkled liberally about. There were single plants as well as several groups of 2 to 4 plants. At this site, we saw only three or four pink to very light pink flowers — the rest of the 60 or so flowers were the white ones.

Here is a shot of a portion of the mowed bank showing the general level of dispersal of the orchid flowers:

This site provided many opportunities for close-ups of single plants as well as a few small groups of plants:

You will probably notice that all of the white-flowered forms have yellow-green petals and sepals. If there is even a hint of brown or red in the petals and sepals, then there is probably a tiny blush of pink in the lip. Here is an example of this:

Also, notice that this flower is almost touching the ground. We found a few of these very short-stemmed flowers in the group.

While we were there, Mark Rose and David McAdoo drove up to join in the photography fun. After a few minutes, Mark commented that there was a site just down the road a bit that contained a clump of the white form with 5 flowers. This really got the juices flowing, since this would be the largest clump found on this field trip. So, we packed our gear and followed Mark’s car to the spot.

The orchids were not visible from the highway, so we had to pull over on the shoulder and walk along the woods line to see them. At this point, the woods at the edge of the shoulder were thin enough for us to spot the group through the trees along with a number of other white-flowered plants as well as a few dark pink ones. After bushwhacking our way into the woods, we each picked a spot and began our photography of these beautiful clumps:

Nearby was a mixed population of dark pink forms and white forms:

There were even a few clumps of medium pink ones:

I even found a pair of flowers with veins that were much darker than the rest of the lip:

At this point, I think it is easy for you to understand how we could have spent several days with these flowers. There are so many variation of color, shading, and vein markings that it would be impossible to photograph every one.

There was one other exceptional plant at this roadside site that I have to mention. It is Rhododendron canadense or Rhodora, also known as Canada Rosebay. The plant forms a shrub that is about 5 to 6 feet (1.5 to 2 meters) tall. The flowers are quite a lovely shade of purple/violet:

Walter and I were signed up for a 3:00 pm visit to Boulder Mountain to photograph Isotria medeoloides or Small Whorled Pogonia orchid. Jean had hoped that it would be in bloom during the symposium, but she didn’t dare promise that we would be able to photograph the flowers. On the drive down to Boulder Mountain, we took a special cross-road called Bear Notch Road. It was literally lined with about 1500 Pink Lady’s-slipper orchids! I know that, because a couple of attendees actually did a count of the plants.

One special orchid that someone had found earlier on Bear Notch Road is Coeloglossum viride or Longbract Frog orchid. Apparently it is not very rare in New England, but the only other time I had seen it was on a previous trip to Newfoundland a couple of years ago. These plants were much larger and overall just more robust than those we saw in Newfoundland. Here are a few images of the plants. They would have been much nicer a week or so prior to our visit, but none-the-less, we enjoyed seeing and photographing them:

Just across the road from the orchids were hundreds of the apparently common, Aralia nudicaulis or Sarsaparilla. This is not the true Sarsaparilla from which medicinal drinks are made, but it can be used as a substitute. We just don’t have this down our way, so I had to capture a few images:

Next to the Sarsaparilla were large clumps of Clintonia borealis or Bluebead Lily. This beautiful plant with the glossy green leaves had made itself known at several of the locations we had already visited on this field trip. These were especially nice, so I decided to photograph them:

So now it is nearing our 3:00 pm appointment with Isotria medeoloides or Small Whorled Pogonia. Walter and I arrived at the Boulder Mountain location a bit early, but we found out that two of the group didn’t show up for their 1:00 pm slot, so Sarah Cairns, our guide, took us in early. As one of two guides, she had been waiting for the other couple to show up at the trailhead. We wound our way up an overgrown trail and then slightly uphill across the woods. On our way, we came to a small stream that we were expected to cross. Just on this side of the stream, I spotted a group of Corallorhiza trifida or Early Coralroot orchid. I had not expected to see these, so it was an added treat. Unfortunately, we were about a week or so late to catch them in perfect bloom (they were already producing seed capsules), but I will not pass up an opportunity to photograph an orchid — no mater what! Here are a couple of shots of those that we found next to the creek:

We finally made it up to the area that is marked with hundreds of colored flagging. Turns out, that not all of the flags represent a visible plant. Many of the plants which were marked in previous years did not appear above ground this year or perhaps they had died. The only way to know is to dig them up, and NO one suggested we do that! Nevertheless, there were several plants with nice flowers that we were able to photograph. Here are a few shots of this extremely rare orchid:

We even saw a few plants with leaves that were not yet fully unfurled:

I had seen Small Whorled Pogonia at a couple of sites in north Georgia, but for those in the group who saw it for the first time, this was a special treat. This orchid is so rare that this may be the only opportunity that some of the NOC members will ever have to photograph it.

We finished up at the Boulder Mountain location and headed back to the conference headquarters in Gorham. But on the way back, I had the opportunity to photograph a fairly common plant which I had been seeing in large numbers along the roadside. In New England, it is very common, but it is not a species that we have in the Carolinas. It is Cornus Canadensis or Bunchberry also known as Creeping Dogwood:

Thanks to some very hard-working people, this has started out to be another very successful NOC symposium. And thanks to some friends who do not hesitate to share their finds with others, we all had a chance to photograph a few beautiful clumps of the white form of the Pink Lady’s-slipper orchid. I enjoy sharing my experiences out in the field with others who for what ever reason cannot be there with me. I do not always relate specific plant locations, especially to those people with whom I have not yet formed a trusting bond. These plants are there for all of us to study and appreciate, and I would be devastated to come back to a location and find nothing but a hole in the ground. Thankfully, that has not happened to me.

Stay tuned! More to come…

–Jim