last monday went to camden, ny to visit an area that we'd found spiranthes ochroleuca, which is just northeast of oneida lake (which is just east of syracuse). I had stopped there a few weeks ago to check on the progress of the plants and had taken one or two pics to compare with some spiranthes cernua. this time I stopped at the bank a few hundred yards before the usual spot to check out some of the cernua growing there, and found a good number of very nice s. ochroleuca (yellow or creamy ladies-tresses) in flower, but with the flowers not open as much as the lower spot. I took some pics and then called Ken Hull yesterday morning to see if he wanted to check the spot out and take some pictures (usually a good bet, Ken's wife likes to have him out of the house periodically and Ken was wondering what to do! (smile) It was a beautiful day for being out and around, and the orchids were in very nice shape, though I noticed that the flowers open up much more slowly than many others... in the week since I was there, only a few more flowers had opened, and of the plants that had already been in flower, only a few had flowers that had turned brown. we also found a new plant for both of us, something we first thought might be virginia meadow beauty but turned out to be an introduced species from Europe called 'Branching Centaury' or centaury pulchellum. it was very unusual, because at this time of year in upstate ny, there are extremely few short plants that have small pink flowers. I first noticed one of the plants in the distance, because I caught a spot of pink in the distance where there 'shouldn't have been any'... there were other interesting things there, so there are lots of pics that will be presented in a few posts
two spiranthes ochroleuca mixed in with the low brush on a moist, sandy roadside bank
ochroleuca without open flowers
tiny plant underneath the goldenrod leaves
a nice plant growing between the birch saplings up on the bank
.. this is the spot where the previous orchid is growing; can you spot it?
.. and this is a zoom of the previous picture, dead-center there's the previously pictured spiranthes ochroleuca (you can just barely make out the fuzzy white spiral)
tallest plant with nearly 33 flowers and buds underneath a bracken fern
more pictures in following posts
two spiranthes ochroleuca mixed in with the low brush on a moist, sandy roadside bank
ochroleuca without open flowers
tiny plant underneath the goldenrod leaves
a nice plant growing between the birch saplings up on the bank
.. this is the spot where the previous orchid is growing; can you spot it?
.. and this is a zoom of the previous picture, dead-center there's the previously pictured spiranthes ochroleuca (you can just barely make out the fuzzy white spiral)
tallest plant with nearly 33 flowers and buds underneath a bracken fern
more pictures in following posts
)!!
