Late Summer wildflowers in western North Carolina, and a surprise! — 2020-09-05

Late Summer, in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, brings with her a strong and varied color palette. The variety of wildflowers found in the Pisgah National Forest and along the Blue Ridge Parkway is just amazing. I began my morning preparing for a full day of botanizing, not completely expecting the onslaught of heavy traffic due, in large part, to the Labor Day weekend and exacerbated by cabin fever brought on by Covid-19. I like to be pretty much alone when I’m doing my photography, mainly so that I can take my time and not be rushed. The added pressure of getting behind the sightseers and not being able to enjoy the drive was unnerving at times, but I was able to make it to all my planned destinations within the 8 hours I had allotted myself.

Recently, there has been some interesting discussion on FaceBook about the orchid species, Corallorhiza odontorhiza or Autumn Coral Root orchid. The discussion centered around whether the open-flowered specimens that some people are finding were, in fact, Corallorhiza odontorhiza var. pringlei. Not until a few years ago, was I unable to find this orchid species with any open flowers, until I stumbled upon a population in the Pisgah National Forest near the Davidson River. There seemed to be a mixture of plants with open flowers (chasmogamous) and those, more commonly seen, with closed flowers (cleistogamous). In Flora of North America, under the section defining C. odontorhiza var. pringlei, is this statement: “In Corallorhiza odontorhiza both chasmogamous and cleistogamous flowers exist; they occur on separate plants, although sometimes in the same populations. The cleistogamous form is by far the more frequent.” Well, that didn’t tell me much about what I was seeing except that it could be expected.

Here are the two distinct forms of this species I found growing within inches of each other:

Autumn Coral Root orchid

Autumn Coral Root orchid

It’s difficult to believe it’s the same species, right???

When looking at the range distribution map found in Flora of North America for C. odontorhiza var. pringlei, here is what I found:

Those black circular dots represent isolated occurrences of the species where indicated. It leads me to wonder if it is, in fact, a valid species or just the occurrence of a normal variation within the species, writ large, especially in those isolated locations.

Another interesting tidbit is found in the discussion of Corallorhiza odontorhiza in the GoOrchids website: “Individuals of this orchid may have flowers that are either closed and self-pollinating (cleistogamous) or open (chasmogamous). No pollinators have been identified for these open flowers, although in exclusion experiments seed set was very low for chasmogamous plants, leading researchers to believe these flowers are dependent on pollinators.” In my experience, expectations of every cleistogamous (closed) flower producing a seed capsule have been met. As of this writing, there is only a single image of this species with an open flower on this website.

Ad you might expect, Wikipedia joins in the fray with this statement: “Flowers are typically reddish-purple with a white lip, the lip with small purple spots, though some plants are cleistogamous with non-opening flowers.” This was written by someone whose experience is much different from mine.

I’ll leave it to you, Dear Reader, to add your viewpoints to the conversation in the comments section at the end of this post. Please share your experience about this species with me and with the other readers of the blog.

In any case, here are some additional images taken at the Davidson River population in the Pisgah National Forest. It shows plants with open flowers and those with closed flowers:

From the Davidson River site, I went up the road a mile or so to another site where I had found this orchid species last year. I didn’t see it there, this year, but I did see another favorite wildflower, Geranium thunbergii or Thunberg’s Geranium:

It was almost noon, so it was past time to get up on the Parkway. The traffic in the National Forest had been miserable, what with it being Labor Day weekend, so I expected no different on the Parkway. I was not mistaken! Just getting up there via Hwy. 276 was a nightmare. Cars were parked along the side of the road, in the road, and in the midst of turning around when turning around was not an option. Ugh! But, I finally made it to the Parkway.

I headed west to my first destination, which is a wet roadside cliff face where water pools a bit at the bottom of the cliff face. Here, a particular water-loving species loves to grow with its feet wet. Chelone obliqua or Red Turtlehead. I’ll let you figure out why it has the common name, Turtlehead, but it won’t be difficult. As in previous years, they were there in profusion. But, the plants are so close to the highway, that the traffic whizzing by makes it a challenge to photograph. Here are some of the images I took at this site:

With my ears still buzzing from the motorcycles zooming past, I gathered my gear, got back into the truck and headed south toward my next destination, Wolf Mountain Overlook. The wildflowers from this site have appeared many times in my blog, because it is a very special place. It is called the “Vertical Bog” by locals and those in the “know”. The cliff face is continually wet by ground water seeping through cracks in the rock as well as rainwater runoff from above. My guess is that the cliff face is at least 60-70 feet (18-21 meters) tall, and it is just awesome! The cracks in the rock face provide footholds for many wildflower species, but especially the big draw this time of year — Parnassia asarifolia or Kidney-leaf Grass-of-Parnassus. Normally, I would not be specific about a location, but now, so many people know about it that it’s not divulging new information to anyone. There are other locations along the Parkway for this species, but this one is by far the best.

Here are some images I took of Kidney-leaf Grass-of-Parnassus at this site:

Just coming into bloom is an endemic to the area, Gentiana latidens or Balsam Mountain Gentian. Its large, deep royal blue flowers are quite the sight:

There were a few other species which I’ve seen there almost every visit, but for some reason I have never highlighted their photographs. These are the umbels of tiny white flower of Oxypolis rigidior or Stiff Cowbane, and the bright pink flowers of Agalinis tenuifolia or Slenderleaf false foxglove:

In addition, there is Krigia montana or Mountain Dwarfdandelion, ubiquitous in its appearance along the base of the wet cliff face. Its bright yellow flowers always manage to sneak into every photograph one takes at this site:

Another rare plant, for this area at least, is Triantha glutinosa or Sticky Tofieldia. It is a denizen of more northerly climes. But, the high altitudes of the Southern Appalachian Mountains along the Blue Ridge Parkway, provide just the right environment for this species to thrive. Here is a shot of it in full bloom taken at this site in mid-July, and the same species that has produced seed capsules (and that sneaky little yellow Krigia doing a photo bomb!):

Although I have photographed it recently and highlighted it in my blog posts, I cannot bypass the beautiful patches of Drosera rotundifolia or Round-leaf Sundew, a bug-loving carnivorous plant holding on for dear life on the vertical face of the cliff. Here are three differently formatted shots of the same patch:

Nearby, was a group of plants with seed capsules belonging to Gymnadeniopsis clavellata or Club-spur orchid. I had photographed these in full bloom in mid- to late July:

Time to pack up my gear and head back home. But first, I wanted to stop by a certain hillside where I’ve seen Spiranthes ochroleuca or Yellow Ladies’-tresses orchid blooming as early as this time of year. I figured I might be too early, and I was correct. However, there were several Gentianella quinquefolia or Stiff Gentian in full bloom, and I just could not pass that up:

I even managed to spot a bi-color form of this species hiding in the grass:

Now it truly was time to head home. I was tired and a bit agitated with all of the traffic noise in a place that’s supposed to be serene and quiet. So, I packed my gear and got back on the road. With Spiranthes still in the back of my head, I was looking at the roadside as I drove back when I spotted a spike of white flowers at the edge of the woods. It looked too “fat” to be a Spiranthes, so I slammed on the brakes , made a u-turn (like the tourists were doing, LOL), and headed back the short distance to where I had seen the white flowers. This is where the surprise that I told you about in the title to this blog post, comes in.

It turned out that I was looking at a couple of patches of Goodyear pubescens or Downy Rattlesnake Plantain orchids in full bloom!!! I normally photograph this species at lower elevations anywhere from mid- to late July, and here it was in full bloom the first week in September! I could hardly believe my eyes. I can only guess that being at 5,500 feet (1,675 meters) in elevation makes a big difference. In addition, they are in shade and at the edge of the woods. Here are some shots from this patch of orchids:

After photographing these orchids, I got back into my truck and continued the trip, scouring the side of the road for more orchids. Within less than a mile, I found another patch, then another one! I had never seen so many at one time. And, all of the plants seemed to have bloomed this year. I suspect next year will not be so full of flowers, but you never know. Here are some additional shots of one of the larger patches with a section that didn’t bloom this year. Maybe next year???

In total, I’m guessing I saw more than 200 blooming plants in 8-10 colonies withing a 1-mile (1.6 km) distance of road. I cannot wait until next year to see if the same thing will happen.

Wow! Another busy day filled with orchids and other wildflowers. If there had been less traffic on the road, it would have been perfect. As I have said repeatedly, I am so thankful to live so close to such a treasure as is the Southern Appalachian Mountains. And the Blue Ridge Parkway in western North Carolina goes right through the best parts. In a couple of weeks, or maybe a bit less, the Spiranthes or Ladies’-tresses orchids should be standing proud along the roadside. I have a couple of sites picked out that should show them at their best. So, stay tuned…

–Jim