Appalachian Twayblade

On July 5, I revisited this area and found another color variation that I have added pictures of at the end of this post

Today was another great day. After reading these two great blogs from Jim Fowler:
Native Orchids at Mt. Mitchell State Park and along the Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina  2014-06-25
Looking for orchids and wildflowers in the Foothills and Mountains of the Carolinas  — 2014-06-07

#326 - Appalachian Twayblade

I decided to spend the evening crashing around in a West Virginia Rhododendron hell. Click on the link to learn a little more about these 'hells' but suffice it to say that the name is well earned. Jim Fowler observed in his posts that he thinks that Appalachian Twayblade is much more common than many believe. Even though it is not reported in Raleigh County, West Virginia, I knew some prime examples of where he suggests it may be found.  

So, off to a logging road a couple miles from home that is an experience itself. I parked and walked down a hill and entered the 'hell'. 

This picture to the right is from above; below this is a creek and where I was crawling, falling, stumbling and searching for twayblades. Not long after entering, I stumbled on my first ever Appalachian Twayblade, also know as Kidney Leaved Twayblade. Photographing it is a challenge in the gloom and having rained the night before, everything was dripping and muddy. In fact, when I arrived home, scratched, muddy and wet , I tried to blame it on Jim Fowler. Didn't help......





After crawling over and under these Rhododendron, I found two more small populations of Twayblade.
One still had closed buds. 

In the dead center of the picture on the left is the first Twayblade I found and shows how it is hid by the Rhododendron 





This is my second new Orchid this week. 
I am enjoying June.
 Thanks Again Jim Fowler.
 More pictures below

I revisited this area on July 5, eight days after originally finding the Twayblades. I earlier checked two other parts of Raleigh County where I thought I may find the right conditions with no luck. 

Today, I found plants that were much lighter and greener than those from before. One thing that I noticed is that the largrer plants were in spots where a little more direct sunlight was able to hit the ground. But, I also found an area deep in the Rhododendron, that was a small clearing (10 square feet). It had Trillium plants but the Twayblade shunned the more open area.  

Below are the greener plants

                         

There were many baby Twayblades

Loving Summer

I havn't been able to get out much in the last two weeks and missed going this year to the Showy Lady Slipper population that I love so much. So I had a couple hours on the first day of Summer to go to one of my favorite wildflower areas. I had no real plan or agenda, but did hope to find some Putty Root Orchids in bloom that I spotted early in the Spring. While scanning the area where I saw them, I unexpectedly found an Orchid that I have never seen anywhere. The Large Twayblade, also known as Purple Twayblade or Lily-leaved Twayblade (Liparis liliifolia). It is not an uncommon plant, but sites for it in WV have been described as sparse and local. I was so thrilled to see this plant that I went back the next day. I am going to post many pictures here of this fascinating plant. Here is a great description of Lily-leaved Twayblade  (http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/savanna/plants/pp_twayblade.htm)

#324 -  Lily-leaved Twayblade

While hiking in and around Brushcreek Nature Preserve, I ran across the following plants and sights.
 New Jersey Tea is new for me and a great looking plant. I wish I had known it was a tea substitute, I would have brought some home and tried it. It was used in colonial America and leaves are gathered while the plant is in bloom 

#325 - New Jersey Tea

New Jersey Tea

Rhododendron, West Virginia State Flower

Striped Wintergreen

Balanced Rock with Tree

Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillar 

June Wildflowers

#322 - Carrion Flower

Carrion Flower

 I am  occasionally finding wildflowers that I missed last year. This one is the Carrion Flower and reportedly smells like rotting flesh in order to attract flies. I can also report that it smells pretty rank. From reading here, I learn that this plant is a female and that male plants have a flower cluster which is much smaller. This plant is in the same family as the Greenbrier

#323 - Cow Wheat 

Cow Wheat is one that is new to me and was a challenge to identify. It grows along a path behind my home in pretty deep woods. It is inconspicuous and doesn't last long. Cow Wheat usually has very narrow, lance-shaped leaves, but this one had much wider leaves. Finally I found this reference.  It seems that there are three varieties with this one being Melampyrum lineare Desr. var latifolium, having broad leaves. 

 Cow Wheat 

Bowman's Root

And some old favorites

Southern Mountain Cranberry

Partridge Berry 

False Solomon's Seal 

Flame Azalea

Flame Azalea

June Mints and More

Spent the day at our church picnic in Camp Creek State Park. I found one new wildflower, the Showy Skullcap. Last year I dragged my Nikon D3000 everywhere I went as I photographed every possible wildflower in one year. I was able to find 308 and this year and for the foreseeable future I will continue to add more. But, I usually just have the iPhone, which is tough trying to get close ups.
I also saw two flowers thatI knew about, but could not find last year.

Meehans Mint

Showy Skullcap

#319 - Showy Skullcap is another
wildflower from the mint family

#320 - White clintonia

I still remember seeing this for the first time early one spring and thinking that I had found a huge population of some type of Orchid. I find this at my daughters home, but could not find a bloom last year.

 The Indian Cucumber is an interesting plant. You see a lot of plants, but a blooming one is sometimes hard to spot. It is another member of the Lily family and has the name Medeola virginiana. 
Small Whorled Pogonia is named Isotria medeoloides and the medeoloides refers to its similarity  in appearance to Medeola virginiana , the Indian Cucumber, 
'virginiana' means "of Virginia" and is a common name for many of my favorite plants, 'virginica' is also used, including for the Iris below.

#321 - Indian Cucumber

Virginia Iris - Iris virginica L.