Late Spring orchids on the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina — 2019-06-20

The last day of Spring, 2019, found Walter Ezell and me on the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina looking for Spring orchids and whatever else interesting we could find. The target species were as follows (in alphabetical order of botanical name):

Neottia smallii — Appalachian Twayblade orchid
Liparis liliifolia — Lily-leaved Twayblade orchid
Liparis loeselii — Loesel’s Twayblade orchid aka Fen orchid
Platanthera grandiflora — Large Purple Fringed orchid
Platanthera orbiculata — Pad-leaf orchid
Platanthera psycodes — Small Purple Fringed orchid

We also were on the lookout for Platanthera lacera — Ragged Fringed orchid, but ran out of time to get to the site where I have found them in previous years.

The first stop was at a roadside site where there are several dozens of Loesel’s Twayblade orchid. They are growing on a mossy bank under the spreading branches of Rhododendron maximum or Rosebay Rhododendron and Tsuga canadensis or Canadian Hemlock. Although the Rhododendron had lots of fat buds, it wasn’t quite in bloom yet at that elevation (4000+ feet or 1220+ meters) – maybe another couple of weeks.

Due to almost three weeks of high temperatures and little to no rain, the Loesel’s Twayblade orchids were in pretty poor shape. Many of the plants showed flowering stems with aborted flowers. The plants that were in flower, showed the effect of stress with bleached flowers or wilted ones. We did manage to find a few plants which were growing in some of the shadier spots that showed some photographic promise. Here is one, in particular, that looked pretty good:

Loesel’s Twayblade orchid

Here are a few more images of this diminutive beauty:

We finished up at this site and proceeded north on the Parkway to a trail where I heard Pad-leaf orchid had been recently spotted. My favorite site for this orchid is no longer reachable, because the trail was washed out last year during a week that brought 15 inches (38 cm) of rain in just a few days. The National Park Service is unsure when the bridge will be rebuilt and the washed out portions of the trail will be filled. Too bad, especially since there were several blooming plants at that site. Here is an image of the gorgeous bridge that was washed away:

Anyway, we hiked down the other trail until we spotted the single Pad-leaf orchid plant. But… there was a bloom stem with only a single, withered bud. I photographed the plant just for documentation purposes. C’est la vie:

Although they may not look like it, each of the leaves is as large as my out-stretched hand.

From there, we packed our gear and headed north a few miles to another roadside overlook where I have seen several orchid species growing in the mossy, roadside embankment. The first species we saw was Neottia (formerly Listera) smallii or Appalachian Twayblade orchid. Yep, another Twayblade orchid. There were a handful of plants to choose from:

The next orchid species we found was only a short distance from the Appalachian Twayblade orchids. These were Liparis liliifolia or Lily-leaved Twayblade orchid. This small group of orchids were directly under the overhanging branches of Rhododendron, and appeared to be somewhat starved for light. They were rather gangly and not that photographable, but I shot them anyway. Here are a couple of images of those plants:

The next two species of orchids, which I knew to be in bloom this time of year, are Platanthera psycodes or Small Purple Fringed orchid and Platanthera grandiflora or Large Purple Fringed orchid. The last week of June brings out the best of these two species of fringed orchids. Because the orchids were about 60+ miles (100 km) south of our current location, and because the maximum speed limit on the Parkway is 45 mph (72 kph), we had to get a move on to have enough time to do the orchids justice.

We passed by the location for the Small Purple Fringed orchid, because I wanted to get to the site for the Large Purple Fringed orchid which is about 6 miles (10 km) farther south — thunderstorms were threatening. There are only a couple of sites (that I know of) along the Parkway for the Large Purple Fringed orchid, and I didn’t want to miss them this year. We were about a week early for the former species, but the latter species blooms about a week earlier, so I hoped that the plants would be in good shape. We arrived just as the wind and rain were about to hit. Grabbing our camera gear, we set out to the place where we had spotted several deep purple flower stalks. What a treat! The plant were every bit as beautiful as I had ever seen them! Here are a few shots of the Large Purple Fringed orchids:

Wow! It’s going to be difficult to top this. As it began to rain, we headed back north to the turnoff to Mt. Mitchell State Park, where I knew we would find loads of Small Purple Fringed orchids. As we drove to the restaurant, about a third of the way up the mountain, we spotted dozens of blooming plants. And……. we saw a baby black bear run across the road! Cameras were not at the ready, so we missed the photographic opportunity. Actually, it was in the woods before we knew it.

We spent the next hour or so eating lunch at the restaurant while looking out the windows at the storm clouds. At 6000 feet (1828 meters) elevation, we were literally in the clouds, and we could not see more than a short distance through the windows. After we finished lunch, the rain had stopped, but we were still in the clouds. So I decided rather than go up the mountain any farther, we would retrace our track back down to where I had spotted the orchids in the roadside ditch.

We made it back to the pull off and gathered our camera gear. The orchids were just across the road. There were not as many as in previous years, but there were still a few good ones to photograph. Here is a selection of those that we saw at the first pull off:

There were a number of color forms as well. On the left, below is a bicolor form, and on the right is a very light pink form — both just getting started:

Here is a small group of plants along the grassy shoulder of the road:

It was time to head back, and I hoped that we could stop along the way to photograph some of the other wildflowers we had seen along the way. One of the plants we saw was Veratrum viride or Green False Hellebore. I see this plant a lot in the mountains, but it seldom blooms, so I felt lucky to be able to photograph it in flower:

Just down from this plant was an Amianthium muscitoxicum or Fly Poison. Supposedly if you crush the roots and mix them with Honey, you can attract and kill flies. Never tried it, so I don’t know if it works. Here is an image of this plant:

Within a stone’s throw, we saw several Medeola virginiana or Indian Cucumber plants. It has a strange little flower:

The last wildflower image is one of Anemone virginiana or Thimbleweed. It gets its common name from the structure it leaves behind after the petals and stamens have dropped — looks just like a thimble:

I will leave you with a classic shot of the North Carolina mountains taken from Bald Knob Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway just south of Mt. Mitchell. Sights like this one are common along the Parkway in western North Carolina. I seem never to be able to get enough of these views.

Walter seems to think our Blue Ridge Parkway excursions to photograph the late spring orchids has gotten to be an annual thing. I guess he is correct. My hope is that I can continue to do this until I drop. I can’t think of any better place to do so…

Until next time,

–Jim