Visit to a new Nature Conservancy site in Pender County, NC – Part 1 – Native orchids in McLean Savannah — 2015-05-22

After my most recent book signing at Flytrap Brewing in Wilmington, North Carolina, I was fortunate to be able to join a small group of The Nature Conservancy folks on a field trip to a relatively new acquisition, McLean Savannah, in Pender County, North Carolina. My friend, Angie Carl, Coastal Stewardship & Fire Program Manager with TNC in Wilmington, had told me about this location, and I was itching to see it for myself. She and a couple of others were heading out that way the next day (Friday), so she invited me to join them.

What most impressed me about the location was the huge number of orchids that were in bloom. Native orchids are my specialty, so I was eager to get out and photograph them. On the main savannah, we saw many hundreds – perhaps thousands – of Calopogon pallidus or Pale Grass-pink orchid. These are most commonly found as a very pale pink or white flower, thus the name, “Pale Grass-pink orchid”. On this trip, we saw some that were decidedly pink or bi-color with white petals and a pink lip.

Along and beside an old roadbed, we found Cleistesiopsis divaricata or Large Rosebud orchid as well as a few Cleistesiopsis oricamporum or Small Rosebud orchid in full bloom:

Pale Grass-pink orchid

Large Rosebud orchid

Small Rosebud orchid

I had arranged to meet a Flickr friend from Florida, Eleanor Dietrich at the Green Swamp on Friday morning. For logistical purposes, we had decided to stay at the same motel in Shallotte, NC. Eleanor has a Flickr gallery just full of excellent image of Florida wildflowers. We had made plans to visit several areas in the Green Swamp so that I could give here the “lay of the land”, and perhaps show her some wildflowers that she had not yet seen. But the invitation to visit McLean Savannah caused me to rethink our plans. I asked if she would like to see a new place that promised lots of photographic opportunities, and she said “Yes!”. Good answer, Eleanor!

We (Walter Ezell, Eleanor, and I) piled in my truck at the motel and drove the hour or so to the meeting place that Angie had selected. She and Kemp Burdette and Amanda Busch were at the gate waiting for us. Kemp Burdette is the Cape Fear Riverkeeper and Executive Director of Cape Fear River Watch where he works to protect and improve the water quality of the Lower Cape Fear River. Amanda Busch is a new member of the TNC staff. We introduced ourselves, chatted a bit, then got in our respective vehicles and proceeded down the two-track to our first destination, a newly burned section of the TNC property. Angie would show us several locations before we went to the main attraction, McLean Savannah.

We traveled a few of the many roads that bordered some of the non-longleaf pine plantations at the location. Much of the TNC area had been recently burned, leaving the characteristic black burn marks on the trunks of the trees. Of course, Pinus palustris or longleaf pine is not only fire-adaptive, but is at its healthiest when growing in areas of periodic prescribed burns. One area she showed us had just been burned a few weeks prior to our trip, and still smelled of the burn. Amazingly though, the ground was now green with grasses and ferns that are native to the area.

In order for me to get a few overhead shots, I climbed an observation tower that was at the edge of one of the burned savannahs. Eleanor took this shot just after I started climbing:

In the following shot which was taken from that observation tower, you can see woody shrubs and other species of pine that are not fire-adaptive which have been burned to a crisp. A prescribed burn is one of the first tasks that must be undertaken in order to begin restoration of an unmanaged piece of land to a longleaf pine savannah. Only through clearing the land of unwanted overgrowth, will the native grasses and other plants (including orchids and carnivorous plants) be able to thrive. Most of the Atlantic Coastal Plain south of Virginia used to be home to millions of acres of longleaf pine habitat. Ever since the original settlers inhabited the land, the native longleaf pine has suffered great depredation to the extent that there are only a few old-growth stands in the world. It is one of TNC’s goals to reintroduce and restore longleaf pine habitats where they were formerly a dominant ecosystem:

Once we got to McLean Savannah, it was obvious at first glance why this property was so important to lock down for The Nature Conservancy. There was an open vista with tens of thousands of Pitcher Plants, fresh with spring growth. Here is an image of just a small area loaded with Pitcher Plants. Wave after wave of them stretched as far as the eye could see:

As we entered the savannah, Kemp and Amanda found a turtle of some sort in the ditch next to the road. When he tried to reach for it to identify which turtle species it was, it escaped. Here is the group at the ditch giving moral support to Kemp. From left to right are Eleanor, Angie, Kemp, and Amanda. The image was taken by Walter — I frequently get so excited at seeing the plants and flowers that I forget to take pictures of the people who share our adventure:

Once in the savannah, we began to see all sorts of wonderful plants and flowers. The first one I spotted (besides the overwhelming number of Pitcher Plants), was Calopogon pallidus or Pale Grass-pink orchid. It was so pretty, swaying to and fro on its tall, thin stem. The flowers of this orchid have a characteristic shape to the position of their lateral sepals. Some of the flowers remind me of angels (although I’ve never met one in person, that I know of…), their sepals reflexed and bent upward as if they were wings:

There seemed to be no end to the color patterns on these orchids. Like snowflakes, each one was different. I took hundreds of images of these Pale Grass-pink orchids, and if we had not been under a time constraint, I would probably still be there doing the same thing!

We managed to find only one of the more common orchids in the area, but we were probably a week or so from its peak bloom. Until the flowers fully open, it is difficult to spot this orchid in the savannah, but we did find this early Calopogon tuberosus or Common Grass-pink orchid:

Along one of the fire breaks, I spotted a number of Cleistesiopsis divaricata or Large Rosebud orchid. The beautiful pink color of the petals and dark mahogany color of the sepals make this one a sure-fire favorite:

The following images show the Large Rosebud orchid at the early stages of flowering. The image on the left shows just a bit of color showing through, while the image on the right shows the sepals ready to pop outward and upward. Eleanor photographed this one just after I did, and said that one of the sepals had just released itself!

The image below shows a Large Rosebud orchid checking out its Yellow Pitcher Plant neighbor. You do know that its human nature to anthropomorphize (assign human attributes to both plants and animals)! 😉

Near the Large Rosebud orchids were just a few Cleistesiopsis oricamporum or Small Coastal Plain Rosebud orchids. The flowers of these are slightly larger than half the size of the Large Rosebud orchids. However, they usually have a more open “mouth”, and in southeastern North Carolina, they are generally white, while the Large Rosebud orchids are generally some shade of pink. The dark sepals of the Small Rosebud orchid tend to curl on the end:

I will try to attack the carnivorous plant images in the next segment of this field trip blog. But before I think about that, I still have two orchid species to show you. On the way in to the savannah area, Angie stopped her truck to check her maps. Since we were following close behind, I had to stop as well. While waiting to resume our adventure, I looked out of the truck window and saw several of what I thought to be Spiranthes praecox or Grass-leaf Ladies’-tresses orchids beside the road. I couldn’t be sure of what I was seeing because they were growing in the midst of Aletris farinosa or Colic root. This is a plant that for all intents and purposes looks just like Spiranthes from a short distance. I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve slammed on the brakes when I saw those clusters of Colic root’s white flowers atop a thin stem which was waving in the breeze. But before I could get out and check the flowers, Angie was pulling off down the road.

After we finished with our photography of McLean Savannah, we began our trip back out to the main road. I remembered where I saw the possible Spiranthes and stopped to check them out. Sure enough, they were Spiranthes praecox — just what I thought they were. Here are a few shots of this dainty little orchid. I am showing you two shots of the same plant — each one with different lighting and with different focal length and both taken from the exact same camera position just to demonstrate a few camera techniques that can make a huge difference in the “feel” of the image:

Little did I know that when we got back to the motel, I would discover another orchid species growing at the edge of the lawn in front of the motel. It was another Spiranthes. This one is Spiranthes vernalis or Spring Ladies’-tresses orchid. It is quite plentiful in the median of many of the coastal highways in both North Carolina and South Carolina this time of year. I had been seeing it in the median, but was unable to stop due to the heavy, Memorial Day traffic. But all good things come to those who wait… Here are a couple of images of a plant I saw after I parked the truck:

The day was filled with so much plant variety that I could not possibly post all of the species that I photographed in a single blog. I wouldn’t do that to you! 😉 So, stay tuned for Part 2 – the carnivorous plants and other wildflowers of McLean Savannah…

–Jim