Fall botanizing along the Blue Ridge Parkway (continued) — 2015-09-16 and 17

This blog posting covers some additional wildflowers (and orchids) that I saw on two days I spent with a photographer friend, Sam Saulys, along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. I met her at an annual Native Orchid Conference many years ago, and she periodically honors me with a visit when wildflowers are in bloom down here in the Southeast. She is currently botanizing along the Carolina coastal plain in search of the rare and special wildflowers that grow in protected areas.

We met in the lobby of her hotel in Brevard, North Carolina and wasted no time in heading up Highway 276 through the Pisgah National Forest toward the Blue Ridge Parkway. Considering what I posted in last week’s blog entry, we saw many of the same wildflowers, but having an extra set of eyes paid off this time. At one stop, Sam found the tiny, sky-blue Campanula divaricata or Southern Harebell. This is really a lovely wildflower, but it is only 1/4 inch or 6 mm wide — very easy to overlook, but not to Sam’s sharp eyes:

Southern Harebell

We stopped at another spot just up the road so that I could show her some of the Turtlehead flowers I saw last week. We scouted along the ditch bank next to the road, and I spotted a very unassuming orchid that usually is in bloom this time of year. It is Corallorhiza odontorhiza or Autumn Coralroot orchid. This is one of North America’s homeliest orchids with hardly any redeeming features:

There is a variety of this species whose flowers are open, but the variety we have in the Carolinas always has closed flowers, and therefore is self-pollinating. You can see the dark, closed flowers which are situated at the end of the bulbous, ripening seed capsules. In the image above, you can see that the seed capsules have been self-pollinated are already beginning to swell even on the plant to the left — one that has just sprouted and hasn’t even fully unfurled its floral parts. Here are some additional shots of the plants we found in that small colony:

While I was finishing up photographing the Autumn Coralroot orchids, Sam was in the woods finding several large patches of Goodyera pubescens or Downy Rattlesnake Plantain orchid. They usually bloom in late July, so we did not find them in flower on this trip. We did find, however, the lovely blue-green leaves with white, reticulated, vein-like patterns in the leaves. To me this is one of the prettiest of our native orchids when it is not in bloom. These leave are evergreen and last the few years that it takes the plant to form a bloom stalk:

Here are a couple of images of this species when it is in flower:

We also saw the last flowers of the season for Collinsonia canadensis or Canada horse balm growing beside the road. (Thanks to Mark Rose for correcting my earlier misidentification). The plant would have been much showier a week or so earlier, but the few remaining flowers gave us quite a treat. In a way, the “fringed” petals resemble those of some of the fringed orchid species we have seen in the area:

We stopped at one section along the Parkway, and Sam spotted the fairly common, Epifagus americana or Beech drops. Even the Greek genus name tells you something special about this plant. The name, Epifagus, means “on” or “over” (Epi) “Beech” (Fagus is the genus name for American Beech). These plants are parasitic on the roots of American Beech, so they can be found just about anywhere American Beech grows. The flowers do not stay fresh for long, and usually what I find are the thin, brownish stems that remain after flowering. However, on this visit, we found the colorful, purple and white flowers in great shape:

Across the road from the Beech drops site, Sam found a tiny, mountain meadow nestled in the center of a spruce grove. Growing in the full sunlight were several Gentian plants, the species name of which puzzles me. The closest I could come to a plant identification for this one is Gentiana decora or Showy Gentian. I used to think I knew my Gentians pretty well until I started seeing these odd ones along the Parkway:

We packed our gear and drove up the road a bit. At Wolf Mountain Overlook on the Parkway, I showed Sam all of the many wildflower species I had photographed the previous week. They were still in great shape. As she is wont to do, she walked the roadway on both sides looking for species that I probably missed on my previous visit. Note to self: “You’ve got to do more of this exploring when ever you go out into the field.” What I discovered is a very rare plant for North Carolina — Sanguisorba canadensis or Canadian burnet. I’ve photographed it in North Georgia, and each of these sites might be considered the southernmost sites for this plant species. The plants I photographed in Georgia were 4 to 5 feet (1.2 to 1.5 meters) tall, but these were less than 1 foot (30 cm) tall because they were growing along the roadside which gets several mowings each year:

On September 17, the second day of our Parkway adventure, we drove up to Mt. Mitchell, the tallest point east of the Mississippi River at 6684 feet (2037 meters) in elevation. Along the access road to the top, we stopped to check out the vegetation. I wanted to show Sam some of the places that Platanthera psycodes or Small Purple fringed orchid had been in bloom at the end of June. What remained of the plants was fairly easy to spot with its stem covered with seed capsules. In the image (below, left) are the seed capsules, and in the image (below, right) are the flowers as they appeared in late June:

We also found some strange Gentian flowers close by:

The flowers in the first image are a puzzle to me — perhaps Gentiana saponaria or Harvest Bells. The flowers in the second image may be Gentiana austromontana or Appalachian Gentian. I say that only because I photographed them at high elevation. Both of these species were in close proximity… In spite of the difficulties we had in trying to determine the identification of the many Gentian species we saw along the Parkway, we were pleased to find so many in such a variety of coloration. Note: I have just received an email suggesting that the dark blue one, above, is probably Gentiana latidens or Balsam Mountain Gentian.

I really enjoyed Sam’s company and sharp eyes during the couple of days we spent on the Parkway. We both have a passion for wildflowers and orchids, in particular. On this trip, I was reminded to take more time and look a bit closer at the dizzying array of local wildflowers that are there begging for some attention. I discovered that some of the smallest can be some of the prettiest.

Until next time…

–Jim