The Search for the Orchid - Part I

Monday I was on a mission. My friend Jackie had written about a ragged fringed orchid she found along the Ice Meadows and I was so taken with it (she had a photo), I simply had to try and find it. The thing is, I had to be in Tupper Lake at 2:00. The Ice Meadows are an hour away to the south and east, and Tupper is an hour away to the north and west. Things were going to be tight.

Not knowing which part of the Ice Meadows she was walking when she found this orchid, I had to make a choice. I chose the state forest, which is along the river road to the north of the Hudson.

The sun was out, the wind was blowing, and the humidity was on the rise. I had about an hour and a half - so I was hoofing it.


The first plant to catch my eye was this lovely. And as lovely as it is, it is not a welcome plant. It is purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), Undesirable #1.

The Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium dubium) was budding, but not quite in bloom.

Steeplebush (Spiraea tomentosa) is also called hardhack. I'm not sure why - I always think of "hardhack" as a dried bread that our ancestors ate when travelling. I'll have to do some research into this.

Isn't this one of the prettiest milkweeds? This is swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata), and it's always this lovely fuschia color.

As I said, the wind was really blowing quite a bit. Made macrophotography well-nigh impossible! This was the best shot I was able to get of these lovely flowering grasses, which still have some dew droplets clinging to them.

Another blossoming grass, this one is yellow-eyed, and we think it's the Carolina yellow-eyed grass (Xyris caroliniana). The flower looks to me like a buttercup that has lost 2/5 of its petals.

Blue vervain (Verbena hastata) was also present. For some reason, my camera just does not capture blues, purples or reds in their true colors. This flower is a much richer color than it appears here.

This little butterfly, an American copper (Lycaena phlaeas ssp. americana) was flitting all over the place. It turns out that the male is a rather pugnacious animal, staking out his territory and aggressively chasing away any intruder, be they other coppers, birds, or people. Supposedly even a shadow passing overhead will set him off!

I originally thought the following plant was moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia), because it was growing so low to the ground, but my friend Jackie told me she was pretty sure it was one of the loosestrifes. So, I've keyed it out again (landing once more near moneywort), but now agree with Jackie that it is most likely a small fringed loosestrife (Lysimachia ciliata).

Many a frog made a mad dash from my blundering boots. Most scooted into the water, but this fellow headed inland. While not ready to bet the farm on it, my guess is that this is a green frog (I think I see dorsolateral ridges).

Ah, now THIS was a nice little find. Well, visually it was. It turns out, however, that this caterpillar is fairly common and can be something of a pest. It is the larva of a, you're gonna love this name, smeared dagger moth (Acronicta oblinita). The larva, also called a smartweed caterpillar, is a "pest of apple and other fruit trees," but also eats sheep sorrel (a pernicious weed at my house), dock, clover, corn, cotton, elms, grasses, pines, oaks, smartweed, straberry lants and willows. Well, it's still a rather pretty caterpillar.

As I cruised the shoreline, searching for my orchid, I watched a tail disappear into the vegetation. Moments later it reappeared on the other side as this northern watersnake (Nerodia sipedon) slid into the river. It poked its head out of the water to see if I was in pursuit. When I moved, it submerged and slid under a rock.

Soon it peeked out, staring right at me. It wanted to make sure I wasn't coming after it. Northern watersnakes are harmless to people, although they can give a nasty bite that will bleed profusely thanks to the anticoagulants in its saliva. Knowing this, I left it alone.

A lone monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens) was blooming from behind a boulder.

A cluster of three of these lovely plants caught my attnetion. They reminded me of peas, which, it turns out, makes sense because they are in the pea family. This is showy tick trefoil (Desmodium canadense). Interesting genus name - very similar to that of vampire bats (Desmodus).

Some flowers bloom and vanish, all within a day or so. Others seem to bloom all throughout the summer, like these harebells (Campanula rotundifolia).

Look - it's a grand finale at a fireworks show! Actually, it's tall meadow rue (Thalictrum polygamum), but it sure looks like fireworks to me!

Jackie had written that the Canadian burnet (Sanguisorba canadensis) was blooming. This is the only one I found, and it was just barely starting to blossom.

My time was up and I had to get home to pick up the dog for his vet appointment. No orchid. :(

A Stroll on the Peninsula

Ahhhh - the temp is once more back to something resembling normal. Still, just so we don't get too cocky, it remains quite humid.

Because the weather was so much improved, I decided to hit the trails. It's been quite some time since I walked the Peninsula Trail, so that was my destination...

...by way of the parking lot (I had to get my tripod from the car). While in the parking lot, I decided to photograph a couple of the plants in the planter.

First up, we have common mullein (Verbascum thapsis). Not native, this tall spike of a plant is found in many of our "waste" areas. This one volunteered itself in our planter.


A syrphid fly was busily eating pollen.



A butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) also volunteered here. It is one of my favorite plants, probably because of its brilliant orange color.



The following are random images from various parts of the trails, in no particular order.

Polypody Fern

Shinleaf Pyrola (P. elliptica)

Rattlenake Plantain was just getting started.

I believe it's Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens).

Although the leaves seem rather less decorative than usual.

St. Johnswort was a surprise, but it found a gap in

the trees and was doing very well.

Buttonbush (Cephalanthus occidentails) is only juuuust starting to bloom.

Dewdrop (Dalibarda repens) was blooming in profusion.

The roof of the gazebo is a hotbed of lichens!

Lichens on a rock.

Is this a rather revolting-looking mess or what? It looks like something vomited on the rock. They are, I believe, lichens, though.

It was a great day for mushrooms, too. We've had 3/4" of rain in the last two nights, so the mushrooms are thriving. My mushroom book is at home, though, so ID is limited until I get a chance to look 'em up.

Although I'm pretty sure these are lacquered polypores.

There was a whole line of them next to the trail.

I suspect they are growing on the decayed remains of a log.

I loved the shape of this one.

Had to take it's picutre twice!

And this one was just so colorful!

Did someone have a snack?

And another snack?

This is probably an amanita. Such a beautiful yellow.

And this is why many mushrooms look mangled.

It's a regular slugfest under there!

These little yellow fungi were just pushing out of the ground.

Next week I'll go out on the Sucker Brook and Sage Trails and see what's blooming/growing there.

Strange and Odd

The back forty was loaded with one-flowered cancerroot (Orobanche uniflora) - aka Ghost Pipe - this year. Must've been hundreds of them. Unfortunately, they were in the "path" that I try to keep mowed so the dog and I have an easy way through, and although I let it go for weeks, I finally had to mow the path. In other words, most lost their heads.

Still, last night I found a few still hanging in there - a long blooming season this year. Conditions must be just right.

I love this saprophytic plant, but to avoid redundancy, I won't write about it again. If you want to read about this odd flowering plant, you can jump here and read what I wrote two years ago!

Does this look like Sweet William to you? I sure does to me, and yet it was growing in my "meadow."

There are two stems, each with three flowers. I've never planted Sweet William in the field, although I do have some up by the house. I wonder how in the world it got down here.

Nature is full of mysteries.

Hosanas for the Unmowed Lawn

Here in The States, we call the undeveloped expanse around our homes a yard or lawn. And this is what it looks like:


In Merry Ol' England, however, they call it a garden. The front garden, the back garden. Even if it is just grass. But the British seem to have a great fondness for gardens, be they flowers or veg, and I think we can all take a page from their book.

Every year I leave a greater portion of my yard unmowed, for various reasons. The reason I like best, though, is that this is what I get when I don't mow:

Isn't that just so much more attractive? Not only is it pleasing to the eye, but it brings in a whole passle of insects, which make the yard even more interesting. Beneficial insects pollinate, attack insect pests, feed birds...it's a balanced ecosytem.

So, last week I did a tour of one of my unmowed portions, just to see what was there. Admitedly, the flowers are all non-natives, but they have been here for hundreds of years and many have naturalized.

The brown-eyed susan (Rudbeckia serotina) is actually a native flower. Native to the prairies, true, but still a native plant. Nothing says summer like a brown-eyed susan, except maybe a black-eyed susan.

Heal-all (Prunella vulgaris) is a great plant. From a distance it is rather knobbly and lumpy, but up close, it is a bouquet of orchid-like blossoms.

Lesser stitchwort (Stellaria graminea) is a sweet thing, especially up close. We do have a native stitchwort, the long-leaved (S. longifolia), but that prefers damp soils, not the hot, dry, barren soil of this yard, this portion of which was originally a driveway.

Ah, vetch. Vetch is a plant associated with agriculture. It is a nitrogen-fixer and makes good cattle forage. In fact, this one is cow vetch (Vicia cracca). Crown vetch is another one that is common along roadsides, and, like cow vetch, is rather invasive. Cow vetch, once in your garden, will take over, twining around your other plants and making a mad scramble to take over. Still, up close it is a lovely flower.

Just for the record, we do have a native vetch, American or purple vetch (V. americana). I don't know if I've ever seen it.

Red clover (Trifolium pratense) is another agricultural plant. Clovers are nitrogen fixers - good to have around. In fact, I planted a whole bunch of giant red clover a couple years ago as a cover crop, but I suspect some of them escaped. The bees certainly like the clovers, so they are good for pollinators as well as the soil.

Birdsfoot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) is one of my favorite summer flowers. You just can't beat that yellow! In the pea family, it's another nitrogen fixer, common in agricultural areas as well as roadsides.

This beautiful little metallic fly was zooming around. It refused to sit still, and its activity was compounded with a breezy day. In other words, this is the best of a batch of blurry photos. I'm still trying to get an ID on this insect. Update: We have narrowed this down to a long-legged fly (Dolichopodidae). There are 1288 species of these teeny flies described in North America, but it seems that few have really been studied. Quite common, these wee flies, often metallic green, are important predators, snacking on small flies (gotta be really small, since this predator is lucky if it's 1/8-1/4 inch long itself), scale insects, mosquito larvae, dragonfly eggs, termites, beetle larvae...the list goes on. There's even one genus in this family, apparently, that feeds on plants.

The mouthparts of this fly are the stuff of nightmares. Here's how Stephen Marshall describes them in his book Insects: Their Natural History and Diveristy: " ...[they] do not impale their prey in the way that robber flies and dance flies do. Instead, they usually have a lower lip or labellum (a spongelike structure derived from the labial palps) that can spread out to expose two lobes covered wtih hard, crushing or ripping structures. One species that abounds on lily pades grabs leaf-mining midge larvae between the lobes of its labellum, and slurps them up the way kids eat spaghetti."

Kind of makes you glad to be at the top of the food chain, eh?

This handsome fellow, however, I've had a little more luck getting identified. My first thought was "scarab beetle," but I've never seen a scarab with fuzzy sides. The antennae were what made me think scarab, though. So, over to BugGuide I went and I have a tentative identification of Trichiotinus assimilis, a bumblebee flower beetle, or a flower and fruit chafer, or a flower scarab. Yes, Virginia, it is a member of the scarab beetle family. T. assimilis is a northern species, mostly in Canada, but it has been recorded in northern NY, too, which includes us here in the Adirondacks.

Last night I found some other interesting plants in an older unmowed portion of the lawn, but it was just too hot to do any photography. Besides, I had peas to pick, blanch and freeze...perhaps I'll take some pics tonight.

Random Photos

It's been a while. I was off again last week, and didn't actually spend a lot of time out and about. I did one of my invasive plant inventories one day, but mostly I was a slug. In my defense, we did have some wet weather, which wasn't conducive to getting out and about, and now it's just too hot and muggy to spend a lot of time away from a fan.

So, in the interest of posting SOMETHING, I give you a few random photos that are fairly recent.

First up we have a cedar waxwing I found a couple weeks ago. It had been hit by a car. The waxwings were terribly numerous for about a month, flocks flitting all over, popping up on lawns, cruising the roadsides. Sadly, a fair number of them get hit by cars at this time of year as they seek insects to fill their bellies. Normally fruit-eaters, late spring and early summer finds them between crops, so they turn their attention to insects instead.

As sad as the death is, it does give us a really good chance to take a close-up look at this beautiful bird.

I am drawn to the "wax droplets" that festoon the wing feathers. It is currently believed that these function as a "chick magnet" and aid in courtship.

I was also amazed at how translucent the wing feathers were. That's my finger you can see behind them.

This morning I noticed that the timothy grasses along the road had suddenly bloomed. Yesterday they were little green cigars, but this morning the golden anthers were dangling away, eager to pollinate.

While driving the Goodnow Flow Road on my invasive plant survey, I stopped a few times to try and sneak up on the butterflies. Most were uncooperative, but this fritillary, which I believe is an Atlantis, did pose.

And speaking of butterflies, the monarchs are back. Saw my first one on the 30th and it bombed around the back yard. It refused to be photographed, though, and the several I saw during my survey also kept moving. So, you'll have to take my word for it that they are back.