Which orchids grow naturally in your area?

[Leo Schordje]

If one knows where to look, within 100 miles of downtown Chicago one could see up to 17 species if you took a number of trips over the year. Walking distance from my home is Illinois Beach State Park, on Lake Michigan, have seen Spiranthes magnicomporum, Platanthera psychodes, Platanthera leucophaea which is in bloom right now, Calopogon puchellus, and a few orchids with mostly green flowers, that I don't bother checking up on. Cyp candidum population just off a main thoroughfare in an industrial park in a near north suburb. They are all around, just not easy to find.

Platanthera leucophaea photo from cell phone, so humid that day, 7/8/2013 that the lens kept fogging up. This is great orchid watching, I did not have to get out of the car! :rollhappy: I just rolled down the window and took the picture. It was growing in one of the north sections of IL Beach SP, in the dogwood shrubs right next to the road. Now that is how I like to hunt for orchids, staying seated in the air conditioned car.

 

[Jim734]

That takes all the fun out of it. your supposed to get full of ticks, mosquito bitten, attacked by snakes, touch poison ivy, etc. etc.

I am remember as a kid I went by myself using the commuter train that runs to Michigan City and getting off to explore one of the bogs in the Indiana dunes area. I slipped off the tree roots and was knee deep in muck. I reached up to grab a branch to help myself up and then realized it might just be poison sumac. No orchids were found, I was a mess, but I contracted no diseases.

 

[The Orchid Boy]

I have Cypripedium candidum within a 30 minute drive of my house and Gelearis spectabilis is about an hour drive from my house. I think there are more around, I just don't know the locations.

 

[Leo Schordje]

That takes all the fun out of it. your supposed to get full of ticks, mosquito bitten, attacked by snakes, touch poison ivy, etc. etc.

I am remember as a kid I went by myself using the commuter train that runs to Michigan City and getting off to explore one of the bogs in the Indiana dunes area. I slipped off the tree roots and was knee deep in muck. I reached up to grab a branch to help myself up and then realized it might just be poison sumac. No orchids were found, I was a mess, but I contracted no diseases.

Yeah, Indiana Dunes and Hook Bog, south of the dunes there are where the Platanthera ciliata can be found, also inside the fence for one of the big petroleum storage facilities is a nice stand of Cyp reginae. I think the Dunes are only 40 or 50 miles from downtown. Its amazing what is tucked away here and there.

 

[Leo Schordje]

I have Cypripedium candidum within a 30 minute drive of my house and Gelearis spectabilis is about an hour drive from my house. I think there are more around, I just don't know the locations.

The only stand of Galearis I know of is more than 100 miles from Chi-town. But that may be just because I don't know.

You know how to find out about where the orchids are? Volunteer with a local "Friends of the Prairie" group, participate in a few site work days, clearing brush. If they see you 3 times, and you don't dig any prairie plants up in front of them, they will start to share with you local sites for different plants.

Volunteer, help out, the rest of the information will come very casually.

 

[cnycharles]

also offer to take pictures of the orchids that you see, and give them copies of whatever you photograph

 

[Dane]

Cyp. acaule (white and pink form) grows happily in our own woodland. In the garden Epipactis helleborine is a nice "weed". I've found a Spiranthes sp. many year ago.

Cyp. pubescens is fairly common in the region and we often find Platanthera psycodes in open woodlands. I saw magnificient plants of Cyp. reginae too but it is not common at all. I also saw Gelearis spectabilis in a Maple Sugar Stand (a rare plant too) and Platanthera blephariglottis in a bog.

Cool you have some interesting natural species, and rare ones too :clap:

 

[biothanasis]

Hmmm...

Near the city I live in and depending on the season, one can find
Ophrys mammosa, Ophrys hansreinhardii, Ophrys apifera, Ophrys reinholdii, Anacamptis pyramidalis, Anacamptis papilionacea, Orchis italica, Orchis mascula, Spiranthes spiralis, Himantoglossum robertianum, Himantoglossum caprinum, Limodorum abortivum, Platanthera chlorantha, Dactylorhiza romana & D. pauciflora, Cephalanthera longifolia...

At my parent's area, one can find some of the above, but also Ophrys sicula, Ophrys speculum, Ophrys oestrifera, Ophrys attica, Serapias lingua, S. vomeracea and others....

you can check some photos here...
http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=29167&highlight=edipsos
http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=20596&highlight=edipsos

 

[Kawarthapine]

Great question and thread.

In Ontario Canada there are 60 species (21 genera), the majority of which are present in central Ontario.

While we have tons of lady slippers, my favourite and unfortunately very rare ones include White and Purple Fringed Orchids, commonly associated with wet/mesic mixed and tallgrass praire ecosystems.

 

[tnyr5]

Here in central PA, I have found:
Cyp acaule by the hundreds
Epipactis helleborine along the roadside
Goodyera pubescens
Some sort of crazy tiny Spiranthes that I can't ID down to the species level growing in live sphagnum
and on just one very special occasion when I was 18, Isotria verticillata

 

[limuhead]

These are introduced, but still pretty cool. In the forest above my house there are thousands of them

Spathoglottis plicata


And Phaius tankervilliae

 

[Migrant13]

Must be great to be able to see 100's of those Spatho's in bloom. Thanks for posting.

 

[krisk]

Orchids of the Adelaide foothills, South Australia

Acianthus caudatus
Acianthus pusillus
Caladenia behrii
Caladenia carnea
Caladenia latifolia
Caladenia leptochila
Caladenia reticulata
Caladenia tentaculata
Calochilus robertsonii
Corybas diemenicus
Corybas incurvus
Diuris behrii
Diuris orientis
Diuris pardina
Eriochilus cucullatus
Glossodia major
Leporella fimbriata
Leptoceras menziesii
Orthoceras strictum
Pheladenia deformis
Pterostylis nana
Pterostylis nutans
Pterostylis robusta
Pterostylis sanguinea
Thelymitra antennifera
Thelymitra grandiflora
Thelymitra nuda
Thelymitra rubra

That's all I can think of at the moment, but there are more.

 

[NYEric]

:sob: Anytime you can get any of those to get rid of let me know.

 

[cnycharles]

Around here south jersey one of the more common orchids is platanthera clavellata, and white fringed orchis and pink ladyslippers in the pine barrens areas

 

[Stefan Neher]

Tons of Tipularia discolor, Goodyerea pubescens, Cypripedium acaule, and some
Pogonia ophioglossoides in a nearby bog habitat.

That is all I've seen myself, here in the Virginia Piedmont outside of DC, though I know there are many more. There just aren't enough suitable habitats since this area is so heavily developed, and has seen most of the country's history.

We also lost a lot of carnivorous plant habitats as everywhere.

 

[likespaphs]

52 species and varieties are native to Massachusetts!

 

[Michael Bonda]

I have in my Florida backyard:
Encyclia tampensis butterfly orchid
Orange beak orchid Sacolia lanceolata
Lady Treeses lawn orchid Spiranthes
African spotted orchid Oeceoclades maculata

 

[NYEric]

Somewhere here there's a thread from when CNY Charles and I went to upstate NY to see the Cyp Reginae bloom.

 

[tnyr5]

So far this year I have seen within a 100 mile radius of my house (not counting my collection of seed-grown natives IN my house cuz that's cheating lol):
Calopogon tuberosus
Cyp. acaule
Epipactis helleborine
Galearis spectabilis
Goodyera pubescens
Isotria verticillata
Platanthera x bicolor or whatever it's called now
Platanthera blephariglottis
Platanthera ciliaris
Platanthera clavellata
Platanthera grandiflora
Platanthera lacera
Platanthera orbiculata
Platanthera peramoena
Platanthera psycodes
Pogonia ophioglossoides
Spiranthes cernua