Serendipitously Stumbling into the Southern Small Yellow Lady's Slipper

When I woke up early last Sunday morning I had a hunch the day's botanical foray would be one to remember.  Fellow botanist and friend of mine, Roger Beadles had driven all the way from his rural southeastern Illinois home for a whirlwind tour of southern Ohio. We had a lot planned and I'll be sharing the highlights of what we saw and found in the next installment.  However, one particular discovery I thought deserved its own post and story.

Roger, like myself is a self-described wild orchid addict.  So naturally our excursion around the Adams and Scioto county region revolved around seeing as many spring blooming species as possible.  One that Roger had long wanted to see was saved for last in the elusive Kentucky lady's slipper (Cypripedium kentuckiense).  It was early evening by the time we crossed the Ohio River into northern Kentucky, with the river valley's high rolling hills awash in crisp, bright sunlight.  Roger and I found the site with little trouble and the orchids in fabulous shape.  I hadn't seen them in bloom for several years and was thrilled to reacquaint myself with them.

After some camera time with the lady's slippers we decided to walk down the road a bit to explore the banks of the adjacent creek for more when something caught my eye on the steep wooded slope above...

Southern small yellow lady's slippers hiding in the woods

My attention was initially captured by the brilliant red color of some blooming fire pink (Silene virginica) but then focused on a beam of sunlight illuminating a small clump of curiously tiny yellow flowers.  It only took a second for their identity to pop in my head and I could barely contain my excitement.  Southern small yellow lady's slippers (Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum)!

Trio of southern small yellow lady's slippers

My heart raced as I clamored up the slope to reach their dainty, sweet-smelling blossoms.  Your blogger takes pride in having seen over 70 of eastern North America's indigenous orchids, with the southern small yellows a glaring omission from that list.  The Cypripediums have long been some of my favorites and I've searched high and low, near and far in an attempt to see them all.

Southern Small Yellow Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum)

I've had my fair share of experiences randomly stumbling into a previously unknown site/population of orchids (unknown to me at least) but nothing like this before.  Never had I fortuned upon such a significant life orchid, let alone one so far off the day's radar.  I didn't take the time to search the woods for other plants due to the long drive home still ahead of me but was perfectly pleased with the three prime flowering specimens staring back at me.  A fourth plant was present but seemed to have had its stem nipped sometime before anthesis.

Roger photographing the small yellow ladies

Roger took my excitement in stride and certainly got a rare glimpse of your blogger overcome with emotions of excitement and disbelief. He can speak firsthand that I don't fake the love and passion I hold for my beloved wild orchids.  The southern small yellows were a lifer for Roger as well and made it a five lady's slipper day for the two of us.  In addition to these and the Kentuckys, large yellows (C. pubescens), small whites (C. candidum) and pinks (C. acaule) rounded out the handful.

Close up of the southern small yellow lady's slipper

Southern Small Yellow Lady's Slipper (C. parviflorum var. parviflorum)

In recent times the wide-ranging small yellow lady's slippers had been split into two varieties with Ohio sitting near/on the distribution dividing line.  The northern small yellow (var. makasin) is only known from two extant sites in Ohio, while the southern small yellow (var. parviflorum) has never been found and/or confirmed from within our borders.  I have my hopes it could be hiding somewhere in the depths of southernmost Ohio.

Southern Small Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum)

Thankfully, the two small yellow varieties share very little overlap in their ranges, so geographic location is a worthwhile method of separating the two.  Taking note of their habitat will remove all doubt.  Northern small yellows are a species of wet, sunny, flat locations such as fen sedge meadows, wet prairie and moist coniferous/mixed woodlands.  Southern small yellows prefer more dry, shaded and sloped conditions in upland mixed oak/deciduous woodlands.  This particular site was under a mature canopy of white oak, red oak, sugar maple, beech, shagbark hickory, basswood and umbrella magnolia.  Additionally, the northern variety is richly aromatic with hints of vanilla and almond, while the southerns emit a soft, flowery fragrance.

iPhone photo of the three blooming orchids

Blogger's thumb and lady's slipper for size comparison

You might be thinking, "you keep using this word 'small' but I'm not sure what you mean".  It's a fair thought and one I can understand without anything to help scale these charming little beauties.  In comes the thumb.  Small indeed, I'd say.  Their labellums aren't even as big as my thumb and very reminiscent of the small white lady's slipper in size.  Looking at the photo above left removes any doubts or hesitations this is the real deal.  There are instances of small large yellow lady's slippers, which can make a confident identification a hard call to make.  I would point out that small yellows tend to bloom/peak a couple weeks after large yellows and typically have noticeably darker dorsal/lateral sepals with a labellum opening densely spotted with red dots. These particular plants didn't exhibit as dark of sepals as I would expect but that feature is quite variable.

Southern Small Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum)

Even as I write this, I still cannot believe my luck that I would bump into such a treasured lifer, especially after a day already rife with excellent finds.  Our time with them was short but sweet and I'm already looking forward to seeking them out again next May for more chances at trapping their splendor with my camera.  As it would turn out, this freshly discovered site in Lewis County was a new county record for Kentucky, and extra special due to it being listed as a threatened species.  It seemed especially fitting that I would come to see this life orchid on May 17, one year to the day of seeing my last life orchid in the small whorled pogonia (Isotria medeoloides) in the mountains of northern Georgia.

Now to translate this success to Ohio and find the southern small yellow lady's slipper somewhere within our borders.  That would be an excellent addition to our flora, even if it's coming out of this orchid freaks mouth.  Stay tuned for more of Roger and I's phenomenal day in botany paradise!

-  ALG -

A Special Day in the Field

Field botanists live for the rare and unusual.  At least I do and would be the first to admit it to anyone who asks what my favorite part of the job is.  It's a real natural high when serendipitously coming across something that makes you do a double take and furrow your brow in thought.  You just never know what you're going to come across when you put that first boot out the door in the morning.

*Being at work, I can't very well have my camera equipment with me in the field so all the photos from this post were snapped with my iPhone.  It did its job well but I'm looking forward to getting back out there with the 'real' stuff to better capture the site and plants.*

This morning found your blogger working in northwestern Miami county at the Stillwater River prairie nature preserve monitoring and updating some rare plant records from the area.  I wrote about the place in an earlier post mentioning how "lacking" my home county seemed to be of the botanically rare and extraordinary.  I had my eyes peeled for my target species of timid sedge (Carex timida) and Wood's hellebore (Veratrum woodii) among the thick carpet of spring ephemerals in peak bloom all throughout the pristine riparian woodland.  Large-flowered trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), shooting star (Dodecatheon media), wild hyacinth (Cammasia scilloides), and wild geranium (Geranium maculatum) numbered in the hundreds, sitting under the gloomy shadows of the leafed out canopy and drizzly skies above.

Clump of the state-threatened Sprengel's sedge (Carex sprengelii)

As I carefully waded through the sea of flowers my eyes managed to catch a clump of a suspicious looking sedge not twenty feet from the river's banks.  I sat my materials down and took a closer look at the fruiting culms but could not pinpoint the species off the top of my head despite it being quite conspicuous and unique-looking for a sedge.

Long-beaked sedge (Carex sprengelii)

The drooping fruit clusters had perigynia with very long beaks that gave it a prickly appearance.  It was unlike any other species of sedge I'd ever come across before so it was off to my trusty Illustrated Flora of Illinois: Carex book to see if its identity lay within.  After running it through the key and taking a gander at some of the line drawings, I came to the conclusion of Carex sprengelii.  But that just didn't seem to make much sense given its known range and rarity in our state.

North American distribution of Carex sprengelii  (courtesy BONAP)

Carex sprengelii is a state-threatened species that until now had only ever been collected and known to occur in a handful of northeastern and northwestern counties.  Looking at the natural distribution map above it's not hard to notice Miami county in the west-central part of the state to be quite disjunct from its two population centers in Ohio.

Long-beaked sedge (Carex sprengelii)

I ran it by the description in the book one last time: drooping fruit spikes; round and nerveless perigynia with a long beak; culm bases very fibrous with last year's leaf growth...all there!  I called up Rick Gardner who is my boss, good friend, and the state's chief botanist who's well-known specialty is the Carex genus.  If anyone could confirm my finding it was him. After describing it and looking over the photos I emailed he confirmed it was indeed Carex sprengelii!  He even mentioned that his first rare plant find when he started with the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves (DNAP) was this very sedge in eastern Ohio.  Funny how it ended up being my first (and hopefully not last!) rare plant find after starting with DNAP.

Long-beaked sedge (Carex sprengelii)

I surveyed the site for more but the one square yard patch of it was all I could find.  It was in excellent shape and looked very healthy with over 50 flowering culms.  I read where it can occur in a variety of habitats and stream terraces in riparian woodlands was one of them; especially when associated with limestone bedrock/soils.  I took a lot of joy in writing down and recording the information for the population and habitat.  As a proud native son of Miami county it felt great to have it and my love for botany come together in such a nice way.  Personally adding to the recognized diversity of Miami county's vascular flora is something I didn't expect to do but sure glad I could! Here's hoping this is a sign of fun times and things to come this summer!

Buffalo Clover Re-discovered 100 Years Later

Let's travel back to 1910 when famed botanist and ecologist E. Lucy Braun was roaming and traversing the forested hills of Hamilton county, Ohio, collecting and observing the native flora to gain a better understanding of the fascinating and seemingly endless diversity and ecosystems of the extreme southwestern corner of our great state.  Lucy was well before her time and one of the most accomplished and talented botanists Ohio ever produced; let alone the fact she was a woman in a largely male-dominated field.  Her findings, knowledge and publications are still widely used and appreciated today by anyone with an interest in the botanical world.  

On one particular day in May of that same year she came across an intriguing and very rare species of plant with clusters of pale-pink flowers and three-parted leaves that she collected and sent to the herbarium at the University of Cincinnati.  There the voucher sat for decades on end as the only proof that buffalo clover (Triflolium reflexum) ever existed in Hamilton county and it slipped into legend and mystery.

Dan Boone and one of his greatest discoveries, the Buffalo Clover (T. reflexum)

Fast forward a little over a century later and another great native of the area and incredible botanical mind would erase that mystery and legend.  On an early May afternoon while wandering around the same area as Lucy over 100 years earlier the sharp, eagle-eyes of Dan Boone spotted something unique growing in small groupings under a mixed oak canopy that made his heart skip a beat.  If there was anyone in Ohio worthy and deserving enough to find something of this botanical magnitude it's Dan.  You don't get a nickname like 'the clover kid' for nothing!  Our native clovers (Trifolium spp.) have long been one of Dan's greatest and deepest passions and finding this great rarity in his home county just mere miles from his house was more than a dream come true.  I can still hear the excitement in his voice as I got the call sharing the news and an invitation to come down and photograph the gorgeous specimens.

Buffalo Clover (Trifolium reflexum)

While Lucy described her plants as having pale pink flowers, these plants exhibited more of a cream color with perhaps the slightest tinge of pink on newly-opened corollas.  Not to be confused with Ohio's other native species of clover, the Running Buffalo Clover (T. stoloniferum); this species lacks the running stolons.  The length of the calyx teeth can also be used to distinguish the buffalo clover from other non-native and introduced Trifoliums but once you see these remarkable plants in person it's hard to mistake them for anything else.  The flower heads are significantly larger than the European white clover (T. repens) as are the running buffalo clover's as well.

Buffalo Clover (Trifolium reflexum)

Buffalo clover has the interesting trait of being an incredibly variable species from population to population.  In fact, Dan has seen a number of populations throughout the Midwest and no two have ever been the 'same' in appearance.  Sometimes the leaves will exhibit chevrons, or watermarks, on the leaves while others (such as these in Hamilton Co.) will lack them completely.  The color of the inflorescence can greatly differ as well, from scarlet red to creamy white to pink and light yellow.

The two photographs above are both buffalo clover from a recently re-discovered population in Mammoth Cave National Park Dan and I saw last early June down in Kentucky.  Notice how the blooms are deep red and the smaller leaves show off the chevrons that the Hamilton county population lacks.  Some suggest there are a great number of varieties within the species but that has yet to be confirmed or denied through genetic work.

Buffalo Clover (Trifolium reflexum)

I was fortunate to catch the plants in peak bloom a couple weeks ago as I made the journey from Athens to Cincinnati to photograph and document this remarkable find of Dan's.  I've seen many rare and incredible species of plants in my countless wanderings and botanical forays with Dan but few could ever match the emotion and excitement of seeing this historic species on Ohio soil.  Some may shrug their shoulders and say "so what, I see 'white' clover in my yard every day", but how wrong they are to even suggest this plant is in the same category as the exotic species of Europe and Northern Africa.  This truly is one of Ohio's most rare and imperiled of plants.

Trifolium reflexum distribution map (courtesy of BONAP)

Originally found and documented in about a dozen scattered Ohio counties, it's numbers and populations have dwindled in the last century.  East of the Mississippi River the buffalo clover becomes increasingly rarer with scattered and isolated populations throughout the Midwest and southeastern states.  As you can see from the distribution map above, the only area of the country where it is rather common is in Missouri and Arkansas, where it is a frequent species of the Ozarks.

For the past few decades the only population still extant in the state lied in Pike county where the plants bloomed scarlet red and exhibited faint chevrons on the leaves; much like the previously pictured buffalo clover from Mammoth Cave.  Thanks to Dan's constant vigilance and efforts Ohio can now proudly claim back another population to its records.  The fight is far from over though, as this species is an annual and relies heavily on seed production and disturbance to fight back encroaching vegetation and over-shading.  I'm curious what effects an under story burn would produce at the new Hamilton county site as this species has historically responded very well to burns.  In fact, the plants at Mammoth Cave had sat dormant for nearly two decades in the seed bank of a rocky, dry mixed oak forest before a prescribed burn a couple spring ago sprang them forth.

Buffalo Clover (Trifolium reflexum)

Upon closer inspection it becomes evident just how attractive and gorgeous a flower head this species can produce.  The individual inflorescences bloom for a short time before reflexing and all hang down below the long pedicle that supports the head.  This picture also shows the long calyx teeth (the thin, green 'threads' at the base of each individual flower) which helps distinguish this species.

Buffalo Clover (Trifolium reflexum)

This particular population was growing in a relatively open area in the under story of a mixed oak woodland with white, red and chinkapin oaks and a scattering of sugar maple along with an herbacious association of yellow pimpernel (Taenidia integerrima), great yellow woodsorrel (Oxalis grandis), and Bosc's Panicgrass (Dichanthelium boscii).  Further up the slope the under story becomes much more thick with vegetation but luckily the immediate area seems to be relatively free of the intensely invasive Asian Amur bush honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii).  Buffalo clover occurs in rocky, open woods and prairies with a strong preference for acidic soils.  Perhaps the acidity of the soil is a distinguishing factor in the color of the resulting flowers?

Buffalo Clover (Trifolium reflexum)

After photographing and admiring the remarkable buffalo clover for quite some time we decided to do something that I dare say very, very few have ever (and I do mean ever) had the chance of becoming a part of.  Hamilton county, Ohio has the very rare honor of being one of the only counties in the world where one can see both the native buffalo clover (T. reflexum) and the federally endangered running buffalo clover (T. stoloniferum). I can't say without any real assurance but it just may be the only county currently known to have both species with extant populations.  These are Ohio's only two indigenous clovers and both are listed as endangered in our state.

Running Buffalo Clover (Trifolium stoloniferum)

Not long after leaving the buffalo clover my eyes rested upon our other native taxa and equally gorgeous running buffalo clover (T. stoloniferum).  I felt a sense of honor and accomplishment to have been in the presence of two of Ohio's most rare species.  I really would like to find out just how many other counties in the country can lay claim to both these native clovers within their borders.  Perhaps Hamilton is unique in that fact but time will tell and while I am proud of that fact I do hope others can and will eventually share in the joy; the more of these beautiful plants there are, the better off our natural diversity is!

The Botanical Find of a Lifetime

As a botanist I am always dreaming of coming across a rare species of plant nestled somewhere for only the sharp-eyed naturalist to see.  Dreaming even deeper is the thought of discovering a plant or population that is new to Ohio or science altogether.  Well yesterday was the day I got to experience that high and raise my excitement in the botanical world to new heights!  Be prepared for some rambling and story-telling because the excitement is still flowing very swiftly through my veins and fingers.

Back in 1963 the famous botanist E. Lucy Braun was walking through a mesic forest in the Rocky Fork drainage of Scioto County, Ohio when she came across a species of plant that caught her eye.  The plant's flower was long gone but the interesting fruit is what got her attention.  She returned the next year in time to catch it flowering and discovered what is to this day the ONLY known population/area of Erythronium rostratum in the state of Ohio.  For over 40 years this population of Goldenstars has bloomed and gone to seed time and time again with no one ever finding another population...until now.

Yesterday I planned to spend the day botanizing and hiking with friend and Edge of Appalachia Preserve manager, Chris Bedel to see what unusual Spring bloomers we could find.  When I walked into the offices of the Eulett Center at 10a.m. little did I know what the day had in store for myself, Chris and fellow preserve manager Rich McCarty.  The day before while trudging through an area of forest way off the beaten path on the preserve, Rich found a patch of Erythronium americanum, commonly known as the Yellow Trout-lily that he thought to look a bit different.  He brought back a specimen to the office and encouraged Chris and I to take a look.  While it was too early for any E. americanum to be blooming (we checked several areas where it is known to bloom to find no evidence of it anywhere), it seemed even less likely that this could be the other plant easily confused with the Yellow Trout-lily; a plant found nowhere else in the state but one spot an hour or so to the east.  The more we looked at the plant Rich brought back the more curious and unsure of its true identity we became so we asked him to lead us to the spot where he found it.  After walking through several old fields, crossing a stream and entering the edge of an old woodland we came before a carpet of mottled green, fleshy leaves all adorned with a striking yellow bloom.  The woods was relatively undisturbed and mature with large Ash (Fraxinus spp.), Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) and White Oak (Quercus alba) trees in the canopy and a thin understory of Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) and one of my personal favorites, Leatherwood (Dirca palustris), both starting to bloom.  Old fields bordered two sides of the woods while the opposite end sloped down into a valley.  As I pulled out my camera and set it up to snap some photographs little did I know I would be the first person to ever photograph a new population of Erythronium rostratum in Ohio's history!

Erythronium rostratum

Erythronium rostratum

Some of you may be thinking, 'geeze, this looks just like the normal and much more common Yellow Trout-lily to me'.  That's potentially what makes this plant less rare and elusive than it really could be.  Some people may see these blooming in southern Ohio and mark them down as Erythronium americanum, not knowing we have a third member of the Erythronium genus hiding in amongst the foothills of Appalachia.  Rocky Fork has several areas where this plant blooms which I personally consider to be all one population since it grows in the same immediate area.  This is the first time it's been found in Ohio outside of this original range.  Special thanks to Daniel Boone and Rick Gardner for quickly confirming the identity of this plant from the pictures in my emails. 

Erythronium rostratum

Erythronium rostratum

There are two relatively easy ways to distinguish this as E. rostratum in the field.  Both the White Trout-lily (Erythronium albidum) and Yellow's blooms hang down from their peduncle in a drooping fashion.  To me it's almost like they are shy and a bit demure about their flowers appearance and don't want to show their faces.  The Goldenstar is on the other end of the spectrum.  It is quite proud of its blooms, standing them up on their stalks for all the world to see.  Maybe they know they are a rarity and are trying to get noticed.  It worked in Rich's case!  The other means of identification on the blooms is a bit more open to interpretation depending on who is looking at it.  On the other two Erythronium's the tepals (petals) are strongly reflexed, meaning they curve back from the plane of the flower.  With E. rostratum the tepals do not reflex and instead are spread out in a flat, star-like fashion.  What is flat and what is slightly reflexed is where the arguments can start but just about every flower in the area showed little to no reflexing while the other Erythroniums are obviously reflexed.  Gold color, star-like...wonder how they could have ever earned the name Goldenstars?

Erythronium rostratum

Erythronium rostratum

Taking a look at the back of the bloom the sepals exhibit a purplish-brown color while the golden yellow petals are striped with a few thin, brown lines.  The single best way to identify this species is once the plant goes to fruit.  If you are familiar with the other two species of Erythronium you know the ovary swells up into a green capsule at the end of the long peduncle and lays prostrate along the ground.  In the Goldenstar's case the peduncle curves upward towards the apex and holds the capsule erect, up off the ground.  Also the capsule itself provides the distinguishing characteristic of having a 'beak'.  In fact the latin species name of rostratum translates to 'beak'.  I plan on going back sometime in the next week or so to get some photographs of the maturing fruit.  I fear with nighttime temperatures in the 20's and daily highs only in the upper 30's and lower 40's forecasted for the next few days these already notoriously quick bloomers won't last very long at all.  Glad Rich, Chris and I came across them when we did!  As isolated and secluded as this population is I find it hard to believe that even after nearly 50 years and hundreds of botanists and naturalists looking for it this is the first time it's been discovered out of the Rocky Fork valley.  Crazy stuff!

Erythronium americanum

Erythronium americanum

Above are some photographs from last Spring of Erythronium americanum for comparative purposes.  Notice the heavy reflexing of the tepals in both photographs as well as a speckling of red dots on the inner petals.  Also in many of the Yellow Trout-lilies I see have red/orange stamens while the Goldenstar's are yellow.

This discovery goes to show just how important preservation and conservation of the natural world is; you just never know what is going to turn up where!  I am very thankful this population is already under the protection of the Edge of Appalachia's Preserve as well as being way off the beaten trail and not anywhere near any of the public trails.  Rich McCarty is well known for many other botanical discoveries in the Adams County area; including the finding of the rare White Lady's Slipper orchid (Cypripedium candidum) on the preserve a few years ago (can't wait to bring that to you when it blooms in May!).  I think this may be his best find yet and I am proud to say I was one of the first people to sit down amongst these rarities and truly soak in and appreciate their existence.  It's not everyday you get to be a part of something this exciting and groundbreaking!  Perhaps there's more Erythronium rostratum out there waiting on the Edge and beyond...I'd love to dedicate some time to finding out!