Late Spring orchids along the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the Carolinas — Part 1 — 2014-05-23

In order to pay justice to all of the orchids and wildflowers we saw this past weekend along the Carolina Atlantic Coastal Plain, I have decided to split the trip report into two blog entries: Part one for the Francis Marion National Forest in Berkeley County, South Carolina and Part two for the Green Swamp and surrounding area of Brunswick County, North Carolina.

We were expecting severe thunderstorms on Friday, May 23, the day Walter and I left on our late-Spring orchid foray, so we made mental preparation to experience a wet field trip. It never happened — at least during the day in the Francis Marion NF. The Forest Service had burned several large tracts of forest and savannah sometime earlier this year, and I had high hopes for at least one of the orchid species that we sometimes see down there: Cleistesiopsis divaricata or Large Rosebud orchid:

Before I proceed, a little housekeeping is in order concerning this species and other related species.

Botanical stuff follows: If I should get any of this wrong, please let me know so I can correct the information. There is a more thorough discussion of the following topic beginning on page 50, here. At this point, those of you who have ADHD might want to scroll on down this blog page to the pictures. 😉 Numerous papers have been written about this orchid genus and its North American counterpart, and I will try to boil it down for you.

There is a well-known genus of orchids called Cleistes. The genus was officially named in 1840. Let me back-peddle a bit. Currently, all plant names must be approved by the International Botanical Congress. This group has the right to alter the ICN (International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi and plants), and it takes its job very seriously. One cannot just go around, willy-nilly, creating plant species names. The International Botanical Congress is the go-to organization for this.

Anyway, this genus, Cleistes, contained orchid species that are found in both North America and South America. Relatively recently, it was decided, with the help of DNA sequencing, that those Cleistes species in North America should be segregated into a new genus, Cleistesiopsis, whose name means, “looks like Cleistes“. In North America, there were two species of this genus. Until 2009, these were known as Cleistes bifaria or Small Rosebud orchid and Cleistes divaricata or Large Rosebud orchid. Before that, Cleistes bifaria was known as a variety of Cleistes divaricata — Cleistes divaricata var. bifara. To complicate matters, Cleistes bifaria (bifaria => taking two forms) puzzled botanists as to what significant differences, if any, existed between the two forms. (BTW, for a better understanding of the Latin or Greek words used in the species names, I usually consult my easy reference for botanical nomenclature here.) These two forms are found in the mountains and coastal plain, respectively.

Much work was done by botanists Paul Catling and Katherine Gregg, continuing the work done by Merritt Fernald in the 1950s, to try to determine the relationship between Cleistes divaricata and Cleistes divaricata var. bifaria. In 1992, they wrote a paper in which they presented morphological, phenological, fragrance, and geographical evidence that resulted in raising Cleistes divaricata var. bifaria to species status.

Well, in 2008, there were a couple of Brazilian botanists, Emerson Pansarin and Fábio de Barros, who conducted the work that resulted in the isolation of the North American species from the South American species. Similar work was actually proposed in 1999 by leading North American botanists, Ken Cameron and Mark Chase. This resulted in the new North American genus, Cleistesiopsis, with all of the several dozen South American species remaining in the genus, Cleistes. If you’ve gotten this far, you will see that botany is a dynamic field, and things are constantly changing much to the chagrin of some of us amateur naturalists. In 2009, working with the data gathered by Catling, Gregg, and the botanists at Kew, orchid expert Paul Martin Brown contributed the description and new name for the coastal plain populations – Cleistesiopsis oricamporum. So… that gets us to where we are today.

In short:
Cleistes => Cleistesiopsis (in North America)
Cleistes divaricata => Cleistesiopsis divaricata
Cleistes divaricata var. bifaria => Cleistes bifaria => Cleistesiopsis bifaria (mountains) and Cleistesiopsis oricamporum (coastal plain)

When we arrived in the Francis Marion National Forest (FMNF), at a certain point I slowed the car down to a crawl, looking off the roadside into the recently burned savannahs. Although the grasses and woody shrubs had been burned to the ground, new grasses and ferns were sprouting, turning the savannahs a bright green color. After about 3 miles (5 km), I spotted what was to be the first orchid of the day. It was, in fact, a nice specimen of Cleistesiopsis divaricata or Large Rosebud orchid. At least I knew we weren’t going to leave empty-handed. Even if we had struck out in the FMNF, we would be given a second chance since we were heading toward the Green Swamp Preserve in Brunswick County, North Carolina for tomorrow’s field trip.

So we parked the vehicle on the side of the road, gathered our photography gear and headed into the savannah to check out the orchid. Here is what we found:

As with the orchid flower shown at the beginning of this blog post, the petals were much lighter pink than what I have been used to seeing in this area. There was anticipation of finding some darker pink ones later on.

Nearby, there were several Calopogon pallidus or Pale Grass-pink orchids growing near the road. I don’t know why this particular species prefers to be near the road and not in the middle of the savannah. It was a bit early in the year for these, I thought, but nevertheless we spent some time getting re-aquainted with them:

In a good year, you can find these 1-inch-wide (2.5 cm) beauties in many varying shades from all white to all pink to every color combination in between. Since these were the first of these to bloom so early in the year, we did not see the full range of colors in the FMNF.

As we were finishing up with the Grass-pink orchids, I spotted a tall, thin stem circled with tiny white flowers. There are a couple of species of Spiranthes or Ladies’-tresses orchids that bloom this time of year, so I had to get a closer look to verify the identification:

Upon close inspection, I could tell that this was Spiranthes praecox or Grass-leaved Ladies’-tresses orchid also known as Greenvein Ladies’-tresses orchid. Although not readily apparent in this particular specimen, the lip of Spiranthes praecox almost always shows green veins or stripes radiating outward on the lip. Occasionally, the stripes are yellow or so indistinct that they are not visible without magnification. Little did I know that tomorrow we would be seeing a classic example of the green stripes of this orchid on the upcoming field trip to the Green Swamp Preserve.

We walked on down the road a bit and soon saw a few of the typical, dark pink, Cleistesiopsis divaricata scattered here and there at the edge of the woods. These were the gorgeous rose-pink color usually associated with this 2-foot tall (60-cm) Large Rosebud orchid. I’ve heard tales of botanists traversing the woods decades ago seeing “entire fields that were almost pink” with this blooming orchid. These days, we are lucky to find five or six plants within spitting distance of one another:

We had gotten a late start to the day, so it was time to think about heading up the road to Shallotte, North Carolina where we would be spending the night in preparation for Sunday’s field trip into the Green Swamp. I made sure that I took Halfway Creek Road out of the FMNF, because it always has a few botanical surprises in store just about any time of the year. A couple of years ago, I remembered seeing one place where Calopogon tuberosus was growing just next to the road, and I wanted to check to see if those were yet in bloom. We got to the spot and I parked the truck in anticipation. Just in front of where I parked, though, was a nice Asclepias tuberosa or Butterfly Milkweed plant just starting to bloom. The flowers of these beauties range from yellow to bright orange, and are usually easy to spot from the road:

After photographing this plant, we walked down the road about 100 feet (30 meters) and saw a number of Calopogon tuberosus growing in the ditch. Only three of the many plants we found were in bloom. That’s OK, because these were actually blooming a bit early, and we were lucky to find any of them in bloom. One of the plants, in particular, had an oddly colored flower: very light lavender pink with deep pink veins, column and lip. I’ve seen lots of variation in the flower color of this species, but I don’t think I had ever seen one exactly like this. It was a nice surprise!:

Here are the other two, typically colored Calopogon tuberosus orchids that we saw in bloom:

The sun had already dipped behind the trees, and we still had two hours to drive before reaching our motel, but there was one other spot along the road that I needed to check out. This was a dry, roadside that often had a good population of Cleistesiopsis divaricata or Large Rosebud orchid. As with other orchid species, the Large Rosebud orchid does not necessarily or reliably bloom in the same location every year. Sometimes, for some reasons, they take a break — it’s exhausting work to send out a set of leaves and produce a flower stem every year.

When we finally reached the location, I parked the truck and went to scout the area. There were no plants at all in the area where I had seen them last year. But, as in all other areas of life, things (particularly things that you lose or misplace) are always found in the last place you look for them. So, I continued on farther down the road and looked in an area where I had not seen them before. And there they were — in the last place I looked! Eight plants within a 2-foot (60-cm) circle and 5 of them were either in bud or in bloom. This was a fit end to another great day of botanizing:

The light was low, but this diffuse, afternoon light is often just what a wildflower photographer is looking for. We spent about 30 minutes with this group of orchids and then were on our way. We didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but we would be meeting our good friends Kelvin Taylor and Skip Pudney, both residents of North Carolina for a full day in the savannahs and swamps of Brunswick County, North Carolina. Life is good…

–Jim