More Fall Orchids

Well, I made it to 300+ wildflowers in one year; photographed and identified. Things are slowing down; we had a low of 41 Fahrenheit this past week and frost must be in the near future. I am looking forward to the transition from hunting wildflowers to looking at the data and producing some graphs that show the number of natives to non-natives, number found here on the farm where I live and etc. I also look forward to hunting new wildflowers in the future with no self imposed goals, deadlines and etc; just adding new flowers to a personal life-list and this site to increase my knowledge base. I will also continue to post pictures of wildflower jaunts, and anything that I think is interesting from the natural world around here.


 

       I went back to visit the Nodding Ladies Tresses in a wet field near my home. I wanted to see how it was progressing and try to give a sense of how many orchids are on that 1/2 acre site. The ground there is squishy with water and a small stream runs through it. There are thousands of orchids, as you can see in the picture below. I have never seen anything like it. 

#303- Yellow Ladies Tresses

 Right behind my home there is a spot where, in good years, there may be several dozen that I always thought were Nodding Ladies Tresses as well. Then I recently read the excellent article by Doug Jolley in the September 2013, Wonderful West Virginia magazine called Autumns Orchids, Ladies' Tresses. His article highlight several of the Ladies Tresses, but it was his description of Yellow Ladies Tresses that caught my attention. The descriptors for it were basically a later bloom time and dry location. Some descriptions include a yellow throat and yellow patch on the bottom of the bloom. I have been watching a group of Ladies Tresses that met the description but I was still unsure. But I found a group on the way to the Nodding Ladies Tresses that seems a sure thing.
           There were a dozen plants in a dry field edge that were blooming later than the Nodding Ladies Tresses. The rank of the flowers is not nearly as spiraled (not a trait, just seems very different) ,it has a yellow throat and underneath has a yellow patch. I have tried to include photos to show these traits.

Close up of throat

                                                     

                                              




      

River, Ridge and ...Roadside??

I spent this past Sunday after church hiking along the Little Bluestone River near Camp Creek State Park and Brush Creek Nature Preserve. I was hoping to find a few more wild flowers that would get me to the 300+ mark for wild flowers photographed and identified in one calendar year. I had long thought that along the river, there would be several different flowers that I had not found at home. At first it was all Asters and Goldenrod just like everywhere else. But then I found several flowers that are fairly common but I had not seen yet. They had just about finished blooming.

#298- Wingstem

The first was Wingstem, a plant very similar to Yellow Crown Beard,
which I had found close to home. I started seeing the distinct winged stems but no flowers but also noticed the leaves were alternate rather than opposite, so I began to search in earnest. I finally found a bloom or two that were almost gone.

#299- Mild Water Pepper

The next flower was one of the Smartweeds, but the wide open flowers made it hard to pin down, but I believe that it is Mild Water Pepper.



I found these two box turtles and the back one had gotten himself in to trouble with his lady friend and needed to be rolled off his back. I'm not sure if she smacked him over backwards or he was just awkward.

                                                      Little Bluestone River

A wildflower that I believe is an Aster, but I can not nail down the identity. It has a periwinkle blue center and petals. 

#300- Zigzag Goldenrod

After the river, I swung by Camp Creek State Park  and hiked up the Mash Creek Falls Trail. There I found a Broad Leaved or Zigzag Goldenrod, which makes number 300 for the year. This one is an easy ID, but before this year it was just another one of those yellow fall flowers. So the "Big Year"  has forced me to learn much more about many of the wildflowers that I have always enjoyed.

#301- American Bell Flower

I then ran across American Bell Flower along the road to Mash Fork Falls. I have found many, many flowers just cruising slowly along forest and back roads in my region.

#302- Tick Trefoil (non-native)

Fungi from Camp Creek

September Orchids

September is Ladies Tresses month. I found Ladies Tresses on the farm here several years ago when the fields were allowed to grow longer than normal and were not cut in the fall. Slender Ladies Tresses are first and then Nodding Ladies Tresses. I am posting pictures now of the Slender Ladies Tresses that bloomed the first week in September and now are about gone. And Nodding Ladies Tresses that are just at peak now. They are in the swampy field where I found many other wildflowers that love wet feet. I will continue to post additional photos as they mature.

#294- Slender Ladies Tresses

          I just recently read the excellent article by Doug Jolley in the September 2013, Wonderful West Virginia magazine called Autumns Orchids, Ladies' Tresses. His article highlight several of the Ladies Tresses, but it was his description of Yellow Ladies Tresses that caught my attention. I have dry field behind my house that I thought was an unusual place for Nodding Ladies Tresses and now wonder if they could be Yellow Ladies Tresses. I went to look today and they are well over a week behind the Nodding Ladies Tresses, which are at peak bloom. I found only two plants with only one open bloom. So far this fits Yellow Ladies Tresses to a tee; dry feet, later blooming. For now, I will post pictures and wait to pass judgement as they mature.

Slender Ladies Tresses

     

#295- Nodding Ladies Tresses

These Nodding Ladies Tresses were found in a wet field and there seemed to be hundreds of them. This picture shows the small stream with the orchids growing right to the edge. You can see dozens back in the weeds, every white spot is an orchid. I will post more pictures of them soon.


























These next pictures are of the Ladies Tresses found in the dry field behind my house. I suspect maybe they are Yellow Ladies Tresses, but will wait till they mature further before I decide. I will take your thoughts as well. So far the evidence is: Dry field, blooming over 1- 1 1/2 weeks later than Nodding Ladies Tresses, unopened blooms do look yellower and they are supposed to be very common in my area.

    Possible Yellow Ladies    Tresses

Possible Yellow Ladies Tresses Habitat

Close up of flowers 

#296- Jerulsalem Artichoke

I see this flower each year behind my school along the edge of the woods where a drainage ditch runs. I knew that it had blooms similar to Black Eyed Susan but there are a dozen or more blooms floating on hairy, small stems above the plant. It also is just beginning to bloom near the end of September while Black Eyed Susan is about bloomed out. It is not in the popular references despite being a Eastern US native wildflower. This is Brown Eyed Susan and a great looking flower as Fall begins in earnest. 

#297- Brown Eyed Susan

      

Here is  another Aster that is different from the others. It has the traits of Showy Aster, but it is not listed as found in West Virginia, so I need to do more research.


300 wildflowers in one year is just in reach but also seems tough to reach this late in the year; so far I have resisted the urge to label many of the similar plants unless I can ID them without question in my mind. There are so many Goldenrods, but I am only comfortable with five yellow ones and a white one. Same with the Asters; New York Aster, Old Field Aster, Small Flowered Aster, Smooth Aster and others are probally among my pictures but I just can't comfortably ID them.
          And I think of the missed opportunities; I know where to find White Clintonia and Indian Cucumber Root  plants, but could not find them in bloom, but have found both with fruit, one after chasing the grandbabies ball into the edge of a pine thicket. I find a Red Sessile Trillium and Dwarf Larkspur in Morgantown, but was not there this year. And there were others. But the constant searching here late in the year has shown me many wildflowers that I had not seen before. Its been a great year what ever the end count is.

September Wildflowers

I noticed a few weeks ago that I am in reach of 300 wildflowers photographed and identified from West Virginia in one year. My last post took the count to 278, so now, in the waning weeks of  the season, I am scouring the fields and forests around my home. I never really expected to hit 300, but now that I am close, I intend to make an effort to reach that goal.
       When I say scouring, I literally mean scouring. I am poking in the edge of fields, walking creek and river banks and sloshing through wet areas. While laying down to photograph a beautiful Slender Ladies Tresses (to be posted later with other varieties), I discovered a new flower for me; Reclining St Andrews Cross. While researching fall flowers I came on an account of Gold Crownbeard and Wingstems and remembered a flower I thought was a ragged looking sunflower relative. I went back and found it and was able to ID it as a Crownbeard  from its leaves which are opposite.
    I also am trying hard to identify  the various Goldenrods. I know I have seen at least four distinct varieties but they are difficult to pin down.

#279- Reclining St. Andrew's Cross

#280- Calico Aster

#281- Yellow Crownbeard

Yellow Crownbeard with sun shining through the 'wings' on the stem

 This plant is known as Lambsquarter and there is some confusion on its status as a native or introduced. What was interesting here was the ants that were tending to aphids on the stems. The ants gather honeydew produced by the ants and the aphids in return are protected by the ants. 

#282- Lambsquarter

Lambsquarter with Aphids and Ants 

Most of the following were from a slog through the swampy, murky and muddy sections around the farm here.

#283- Bushy Aster

#284- Swamp Agrimony

 Swamp Agrimony

#285- Nodding Bur Marigold

#286- Devils Beggar-tick
I remember the seeds that stick to your clothes rather than this nondescript flower on the purple stems

#287-Silky Bush Clover

#288- Hedge Bindweed (non-native)

#288- Hedge Bindweed (non-native)

#289- Blue Stemmed Goldenrod  

Blue Stemmed Goldenrod  is one of the only Goldenrods with scattered flower clusters on a wand like stem. 

#290- Wild Lettuce 

#291-  Purplestem Aster

 All of the other blue flowered Asters around were much smaller than this one. The Purple on the stems, the seven foot tall plant, the very wet footprint  and the stiff hair on the stems makes this one Purplestem Aster. 

#292- Canada Goldenrod

While reading up on this one, I found a fact sheet from the country of Latvia. It seems that Canada Goldenrod is an invasive species introduced to Europe from North America before the year1645 as an ornamental. 

#293- Crooked-stem Aster

The spoon shaped leaves that narrow at stem, almost winged, and clasping,
the stem that turns purple with age and the stem that changes direction 
at every leaf node, identifies this as Crooked-stem Aster

September- Flowers, Ferns and Fungi

September is one of my favorite months. I was born in September, I enjoy the beginning of the Fall season and even the first few crisp nights with light frosts. September is also a great wildflower month. I rambled around the farm here one day and then went to Brush Creek Preserve for an early Labor Day morning hike. There were several flowers and other sights.

The first one, Beechdrops, was behind my home. It has no chlorophyll and gains nurishment from the roots of Beech trees.

#274- Beechdrops

Beechdrops

Virginia Bugleweed has green stems, wider leaves and smaller flowers than American Water Horehound.

#274- Virginia Bugleweed 

#275- Wrinkled Leaf Goldenrod

#276- False Buckwheat 

#277- Sow Thistle

#278- Small Red Morning Glory (non-native)

 I found this Lobelia on Brush Creek and first thought it was Spiked Lobelia. But, now I believe it is a light variety of Great Blue Lobelia, because the leaves are up in the flowers. Still looking at other possibilities. The next one is darker but has two spikes on same plant.

 Grape Fern

Fungi

Mushroom