Late Spring orchids along the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the Carolinas — Part 2 — 2014-05-23

Early on Saturday morning, May 24, we had a leisurely breakfast near our motel in Shallotte, North Carolina, and headed out to meet two photography buddies, Kelvin Taylor and Skip Pudney. Both Kelvin and Skip share my love for the orchids and wildflowers of the Southeast. Skip lives about 30 minutes from the Green Swamp, one of the most “sacred” botanical areas in the region. In the past, he has been our “scout”, providing timely status for bloom times of the orchids and other rare wildflowers in the area. Recently, the company he works for notified him that they were closing their local facility, and they offered him a job in Texas. We are really going to miss him, not just for generously sharing his time to go out and scout for us, but also for his humor, and friendship. However, this opens up a big opportunity to visit him in Texas where he can show us all of the neat botanical stuff that I’m sure he will discover out there.

The intended purpose for this particular visit to the Green Swamp Preserve and surrounding area was to locate and photograph Cleistesiopsis oricamporum or Coastal Plain Rosebud orchid. It was formerly known as Cleistes bifaria. For a detailed discussion of the name change, please refer to my previous blog entry, Late Spring orchids along the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the Carolinas — Part 1 — 2014-05-23.

Skip, Kelvin, Walter, and I were set to meet about 8:15 am at “The Pond”, our usual meeting place in the Green Swamp Preserve. Kelvin and Skip, early risers that they are, were already in Shoestring Savannah when we got there. They were looking for Cleistesiopsis oricamporum or Small Rosebud orchid where they had found it last week. When we finally caught up with them, they indicated that the plants they had found last week were mysteriously missing! We soon found a number of plants whose flowers had been “snipped” by deer or some other orchid-loving critter. What a disappointment… However, we did see a number of Cleistesiopsis divaricata or Large Rosebud orchid a stone’s-throw away from the snipped plants.

Here is what we were looking for:

Here is what we found — very similar, but it was the same species we saw the previous day in the Francis Marion National Forest:

There was one other place about 100 yards (100 meters) away where I had seen them five or six years ago but not recently, so we all agreed to check it out. On the way, I spotted the rare, Lysimachia asperulifolia or Rough-leaved Loosestrife just coming into flower. The Green Swamp Preserve is one of its last remaining strongholds. It is endemic to the Atlantic Coastal Plain of the Carolinas where only a few populations exist. It is appropriately on the federal Endangered Species list. We were about a week early to see the plants in full bloom, but I managed to photograph one plant with open flowers:

When we reached the section of savannah where I had previously seen the Small Rosebud Orchid, Skip quickly found the first one of the day. It was a beauty:

Soon, we were finding them scattered here and there over a sizeable area of the savannah:

Nearby, I spotted a flowering plant with tiny white flowers twisting around a thin stem. It was positioned in front of the burned bark of a Pinus palustris or Longleaf pine. In order to determine the species of this orchid, I had to closely inspect the flowers. The lip of this specimen showed dark green stripes radiating out from the center of the lip — it was, as I had suspected, Spiranthes praecox or Grass-leaved Ladies’-tresses orchid also know as Greenvein Ladies’-tresses orchid. I had seen this same species the previous day in the Francis Marion National Forest, but the one that I had photographed had such faint stripes on the lip that they were almost invisible. This specimen had the classic, dark green stripes, and the burned bark of the Longleaf Pine provided a suitably contrasting backdrop for the photograph:

We spent some considerable time photographing the orchids, enjoying their perfect flowers glowing in the morning light. Kelvin wanted to see if we could find additional Rough-leaved Loosestrife, so we ventured west through the dense pocosin into an adjoining savannah known as Bean Patch Savannah. When we finally broke out of the pocosin into the light of the grassy savannah, we immediately spotted a number of Rough-leaved Loosestrife, but they were only in bud and not yet blooming. However, all was not lost, because Walter found a couple of Large Rosebud orchids in tight bud or just beginning to open, and I figured that it would be instructive to photograph these buds to show what the flowers looked like at this stage in their growth:

The sepals of the flower in the image on the left are still yellowish-green and haven’t begun to turn dark maroon as have the sepals on the flower in the image on the right. The flower on the right is probably less than a day from extending and reflexing its sepals and fully inflating its petals.

We had another couple of sites to visit, and these were both in Boiling Spring Lakes, a small town about 30 minutes away from the Green Swamp Preserve. I consider almost the entire county of Brunswick to be a part of the “Greater Green Swamp”, because the topography and environmental habitats are so similar.

Skip had to attend to some moving chores, so he had to leave us. We all gave our goodbye hugs and promised to get together sometime soon in Texas. Walter, Kelvin, and I spent a bit longer in the preserve, then we headed toward Boiling Spring Lakes where earlier Skip had seen a massive bloom of Pogonia ophioglossoides or Rose Pogonia orchid also known as Snakemouth orchid. On our way out of the savannah, I decided to photograph one of the hundreds of Aletris farinosa or White Colic-root plants in the savannah. This is a plant species that can be found all over the Southeast, not only on the coastal plain, but even in the foothills of the mountains:

When we arrived at the Rose Pogonia site in Boiling Spring Lakes, we saw only a few blooming plants and wondered if we had gotten the directions wrong. We drove around a bit more, checking possible sites with the appropriate habitat, but to no avail. So Kelvin called Skip from his cell phone to verify the location of those “hundreds of Pogonias” that Skip had seen only a few days previous. Skip agreed that we were in the right place. Evidently, the mowing crew had done their job exceedingly well only a day or so after Skip’s visit. Upon close inspection, we could see that the grasses and orchids were cut to the ground, even in the ditches where these orchids prefer to grow. A minor setback for us, since we knew where others of this species grew — the second of the two sites we had planned to visit.

So, off we go to a special orchid site less than 10 miles (16 km) away. This site also provides habitat to several species of carnivorous plants as a bonus.

Once we arrived, we found a number of Rose Pogonia, but nothing approaching the number that Skip had reported. And most of these orchids were turning brown around the edges — obviously we were four or five days late to catch them at their peak bloom. After looking diligently among the orchid flowers, I did manage to find a couple of them that were suitable for photographing:

I would even discover, after downloading the images from my camera, that one of the flowers was hosting an insect — some tiny species of grasshopper.

As we continued to search the area, we found evidence of Small Rosebud orchids, but these were well past their prime. I also found a couple of nice Large Rosebud orchids which made for some good photographs:

In addition, there were a number of carnivorous plants in the area. As we looked around, we began to spot hundreds of Drosera capillaris or Pink Sundew — a common plant frequently found in the southeast coastal plain. The tentacles on the horizontal leaves are coated with globules of a very sticky substance which allows the plants to easily catch small insects, providing the plant with needed nutrition:

In some of the muddy depressions, we also spotted a “cousin” of the Pink Sundew, Drosera intermedia or Oblong-leaved Sundew also known as Spoonleaf Sundew:

One plant that continues to amaze me is Dionaea muscipula or Venus’ Fly-trap. This strange species grows in abundance in the area where we were doing our photography. Many of the plants were in flower. The tall stems with white flowers are a give-away as to the location of the plants that are otherwise hidden in the grasses. Since this is a federally protected species, it is illegal to collect the plants unless they are on your own property. As we were photographing the Venus’ Fly-traps, an elderly gentleman drove up in his truck and asked what we were doing in the area. When we told him that our purpose was just to photograph the plants, he recounted a recent incident of illegal poaching of the plants by some unscrupulous collectors who ended up selling the plants for a mere $.25 each. It means that in order to make any money at all, they would have to dig up many hundreds of plants. Just a year or so ago, some poachers were caught in the Boiling Spring Lakes area with over 1,000 plants illegally in their possession. Although the plants are what we call “locally abundant”, they are found only in a few counties North Carolina and adjoining South Carolina. Enough said…

Here are some images I took of the Venus’ Fly traps — the image on the right shows the white flowers while the image on the left shows a mature plant with the remains of an insect carcass in one of the traps:

I think the Venus’ Fly-traps plants with dark red traps are the prettiest, and after some looking around, we found one that was truly amazing:

Those long, black hairs (three on each inside face of the trap) are actually “trigger hairs”. Their purpose is to sense when an insect has entered the trap. If one trigger hair is moved twice in a period of less than two seconds or if multiple trigger hairs are moved at once, the trap immediately springs closed, sealing the fate of the doomed insect.

While I was photographing the dark red Venus’ Fly-trap, Kelvin was heading up the road where on a previous visit he had seen some nice Rose Pogonia flowers. In short order, he managed to locate a fine stand of the plants — actually many hundred in a wide, roadside ditch. Here is a shot of just a small portion of the ditch:

It was easy to locate a few of the best ones to get some nice macro shots of these perfect Rose Pogonia orchid flowers:

Here is a shot of Kelvin, finding a nice Rose Pogonia orchid to isolate from the group:

To make the day even better, we began to see additional Small Rosebud orchids in the immediate area. I had never seen them this far up the road, but here the were, and they were in great shape:

We spent another hour or so photographing the orchids. As we were about to call it a day, I spotted the rare, yellow form of a very common wildflower — Polygala lutea or Orange Milkwort. The image on the left is a plant showing the typical orange color, and on the right is a plant showing a bright yellow color. I had read about this unusual color form, but until today, I had never seen one:

It was getting late in the day, and Walter and I had more than 5 hours to drive to get back home. So we chatted with Kelvin a bit about the plants we had seen before packing our gear for the trip home. It was especially nice to photograph the plants we had driven so far to see, but even nicer, was getting together with Skip and Kelvin, two photographer buddies I will always treasure…

–Jim