# spiranthes romanzoffiana in situ+



## cnycharles (Aug 14, 2010)

I had last monday off from work again, and ken hull, bard prentiss and I went to a tall hilltop in cortland county to see spiranthes case. afterwards we went to a spot near Bard's backyard in dryden, ny to see if there were any spiranthes romanzoffiana orchids still in flower. they're usually in flower late july, and bard had told us that there were a few hundred very nice flowering plants on land behind his house and the dryden fire department. I'd never seen more than a dozen or so in any one area so was interested in seeing them. romanzoffiana is fairly distinctive when compared to other spiranthes. most of the spiranthes were already out of flower, but a few late ones were still in flower. it was a fairly hot day, and as usual the humidity was very high in the fen. it was a very interesting place, full of interesting plants that like growing in calcareous conditions (they like calcium) along with some very colorful dragonflies zipping around. I spent the better part of 15 minutes just standing in the middle of the area where this huge, blue-striped dragonfly was spending most of it's time cruising for dinner, in the hopes that I could get some close-up pictures of it






spiranthes romanzoffiana (orchid)















extreme closeup





a super-tall specimen about 135cm tall!





yellow flower, blue vervain, queen-anne's lace, teasel





close-up of teasel (first time i've seen it in flower, usually just see the shells/stems along the highway)
these are cousins to the teasels found in great britain; I believe those have hooks on the ends of the spikes and were used to card or comb cotton or wool when making fabric. not sure if these were used, or were hybridized with the others at some time.. interesting pre-industrial use of plants in mass clothing production





bull thistle





horsetails, a fen indicator; usually they grow around the margins of a calcareous area. certain ones were used in the old days to scrub pots because they have so much silica in their stems (I think one of the common names is 'scouring rush'). i've been told that this variety is Sterile Horsetail





close-up of horsetail





blue vervain

this is the first wave, more pics will be in a following reply


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## SlipperFan (Aug 14, 2010)

Cool photos, Charles.


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## NYEric (Aug 14, 2010)

Cool, thanx for sharing.


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## Clark (Aug 15, 2010)

I love horsetails. Have it growing on the deck in containers.
Just seen tons of it growing under the redwoods.
About triple the size of the plants I've seen on the east coast.
Great pics!


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## JeanLux (Aug 15, 2010)

Thanks for this other cool trip !!!! Jean


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## cnycharles (Aug 15, 2010)

*rest of pics from dryden firehouse wetland*

rest of pics from bard's back yard 





queen lobelia; a stunted plant, they can be a few feet tall





close-up





invasion... purple loosestrife is a non-native plant that used to be used in landscapes but it invades wetlands so successfully that it can push out other important plants. I think the plant protection people of the government have even imported a bug that eats this plant in it's native habitat in an attempt to knock it back a bit. with our luck, it'll decide that it likes to eat orchids or corn more than purple loosestrife





close-up of purple loosestrife with honeybee in background





one of the mints





swamp milkweed





Joe Pye Weed





red dragonfly










cool blue striped dragonfly I spent alot of time trying to get a pic of in mid-air; huge!





even though I had the shutter set to 1/1600th of a second, the wing tips are still blurred





berries on tall bush on way out of fen

... you don't see any pics of the cultivated blackberries that we saw on the way into/out of the fen (that were huge), because I ate them all!


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## SlipperFan (Aug 15, 2010)

I'm amazed at your dragonfly in mid-air shots, Charles. Very impressive!


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## cnycharles (Aug 14, 2016)

Another natives bump

 I'm trying to work myself up into going out in the 90+ heat and humidity to get some more south jersey natives pics


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## Happypaphy7 (Aug 14, 2016)

Amazing photos! Thanks for sharing!
Dragonfly shots brings me great childhood memories. 

Love that last red berry shot. 

Teasel(??) shot is also great! What a structure!!

Makes me want to go hiking in a while. 
I'm quite scared of snakes among other things.


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## abax (Aug 14, 2016)

Charles, did you check for ticks and poison ivy? All the shots were wonderful particularly the dragon flies. I love
those small predators. I see smallish blue ones around our
pool a lot, but never seen the red one. Spectacular shot!


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## naoki (Sep 2, 2016)

Somehow, I missed this post, but wonderful images! The close up of S. romanzoffiana is amazing. I think this species grows in our neighborhood, but they are usually 20cm tall. Yours are huge!

The Darner (the blue dragonfly) photo is cool, too. This summer, I chased lots of dragonflies with nets, and I'm learning the ID's. It's driven by my 4 year old son, and it's super fun (we do catch & release)!


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## troy (Sep 2, 2016)

Thanks for the east coast mini vacation!!


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## cnycharles (Sep 2, 2016)

Ty and Yw! A botanist/taxonomist did a genomic study for which I supplied some samples; some of our upstate ny romanzoffiana has close cousins genetically from Montana! So this species does get around the highlands


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