Cypripedium acaule (Pink Lady's Slipper Orchid) New York State, 2014 Maybe unsurprisingly the freezing months of winter have suppressed any happy thoughts of green herbage and summer flowers, but with Rochester experiencing OVER-freezing temperatures for the first time in living memory, it has been hard not to dream of thaw, the emergence of life again, and resurrect Tuesday Tracheophyte. Last year was my first North American spring and I was determined to hunt out some of the more iconic (but difficult to find) plants that are tucked away in small patches of remnant forest that have survived the largely cultivated and industrialized north-east. To have escaped attention these patches are generally poor land for farming and hard to access, often being rugged canyons or undrainable bogs and swamps. Happily there are a number of interesting plants that make a speciality living in the difficult conditions of being permanently waterlogged. One of the most spectacular of these groups are the slipper orchids (Cyprepedium spp.) with almost 60 species distributed across North and South America, Europe and Asia. There are several species locally, however the specificity of their growing requirements, fragmented habitat and poor reproductive success means many species are rare or endangered and difficult to find. Some have also become locally extinct through flower picking and over-zealous harvesting for the horticultural trade. Interestingly the pollination system of these plants is similar to that of the Australian orchid in my first post, although the two groups of species are not particularly closely related. Bees, attracted to the bright color and sweet scent of the flowers enter through a hole in the center of the pouch but on finding no nectar reward are unable to escape without brushing against the pollen sacks which are then hopefully transferred to the next flower. Individual bees apparently learn relatively quickly to avoid these flowers and successful pollination is less than 10%, however plants are also able to reproduce clonally (bulbs bud off) forming colonies. In fact so low is traditional reproduction in C. acaule that multiple successive years of fruiting reduces the health and vigor of plants in future years. Two locations in the Rochester area offer a decent chance of finding one or both of two species, C. acaule (Pink Lady's Slipper) and C. parviflorum (Yellow Lady's Slipper) although it is hard to find any exact details about where and when is the best time to go hunting . Our first expedition was to Bergen Swamp, a small reserve (and National Natural Landmark) managed by a local preservation society, biologically fascinating but effectively anonymous (whether this is deliberate or not, I am uncertain).
Thus buoyed I set out the next weekend to find a second species, this time in the affiliated, but distant, Zurich Swamp. Here again I was frustrated until the last few yards of my walk when I stumbled across a single pink flower of C. acaule. This species is particularly interesting as it inhabits highly acidic (pH 4-4.5) sphagnum moss beds. Such conditions are intolerable to most species, but the extreme chemistry actually inhibits the growth of fungi that would otherwise rot the bulbs of the orchids and they are unable to survive anywhere else.
The mosquitos were so thick that they can be seen in the photograph landing on the stem of the flower as I photograph it (and may explain my hasty and poor photography). This year I am resolved to return armed with military grade insect repellant and several layers of chain-mail or equivalent.
0 Comments
|