It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Of all the countless things your narrator looks forward to throughout any growing season, there's one moment in particular that stands out among the rest.  For a brief week or two in the latter half of June, a handful of special wet meadows in our state come alive with my favorite and most anticipated of wildflowers in the federally threatened eastern prairie fringed orchid (Platanthera leucophaea).

Handful of prairie fringed orchids in perfect flower in their open wet meadow habitat

I've taken the time to publish a post commemorating their culmination of beauty each of the last few years and see no reason to give up on the tradition anytime soon.  You can view the previous posts and dig deeper into this great rarity's past by clicking the links HERE and HERE for more information.  There's just something about this magnificent species that I struggle to put into words but the least I can do is try, right?

Eastern Prairie Fringed Orchid

Only being 15 minutes or so away from my childhood home in west-central Ohio, the site and plants featured in this post and the ones previous are a quick and easy visit and allow for plenty of opportunities to soak in their detail and extraordinary charm.  An evening visit is the best of all as the late-June sun sits low in the sky and its last vestiges of sunlight seem to make the orchids glow in the twilight.  The allure of their off-white, creamish flowers is accented by a soft but sugared aroma that is nocturnally emitted and used to attract the plant's nighttime hawk moth pollinators.

Portrait of the rare prairie fringed orchid

The eastern prairie fringed orchid was once much more common across its Great Lakes and Midwest distribution with accounts from the early pioneers and settlers speaking of wet prairie and meadows ensconced with dense blazes of tall spikes of white flowers come late June into July.  Since then, habitat loss and degradation from both agricultural pressure and the forces of natural succession has pushed this species to the brink of extinction with nearly all of its former grandeur long lost to the plow or tile.  Its affinity for deep, rich, and moist soil was undoubtedly its own undoing as farmers replaced these marvelous orchids with their corn, soybeans, and wheat.

Impressive specimen of prairie fringed orchid

If I was ever asked to pick and elaborate on my favorite moment and view of my home state it would be an incredibly difficult and painful process to narrow down but I would most likely ultimately settle on the prairie fringed orchid in perfect full bloom out across a wide expanse of grasses, sedges, and rushes.  I don't expect everyone to appreciate let alone understand my passion for this plant or why its beauty intoxicates me the way it does; heck, I don't even know why exactly it strikes such a chord with me but it does and I am eternally thankful for that.  With as busy and hectic as life often is, it's important that we all seek out small opportunities of peace and happiness where we can feel whole and as one with everything else.  They may be fleeting and few and far between but even the smallest of things can have the biggest of impacts in our lives and for your narrator, any time out in the field with these wonders is time well spent.

A friend of mine recently mentioned that the great orchid mind that was Fred Case used to say that the blooming of the prairie fringed orchid was a bittersweet moment each year where the culmination of another growing season has come and gone and ushered in the waning sunlight and slow but steady return of fall and winter.  Wise words worth taking to heart if you ask me.

A Rare Orchid on the Prairies

Late June.  When the heightened humidity begins to make your clothes stick and the hum of annual cicadas rings in your ears; when the sun seems to hang motionless in the western sky and the raspberries are just about ripe, I know it's time to make my annual pilgrimage to a very special slice of Ohio.

E. Prairie Fringed Orchid (Platanthera leucophaea)

In a wet sedge meadow that seems no different than the rest but for a few short weeks each summer lives one of North America's most rare and spectacular of orchids: the eastern prairie fringed orchid (Platanthera leucophaea). I've posted on this site and species in years past but it deserves a breath of fresh air and some more attention as one of your blogger's most treasured of plants.

Lone orchid among the sea of sedges, forbs, and willows

In the past few years a few willow species (Salix discolor, S. eriocephala, and S. interior) have aggressively invaded and taken over the previously woody-free meadow.  This added competition combined with the stress from heat and drought of summers past had the prairie fringed orchids bloom much less vigorously than in previous seasons.  What two years ago was a profusion of blooming orchids, this section had only one flowering plant that I could locate.

E. Prairie Fringed Orchid (Platanthera leucophaea)

That being said there was still quite a few specimens in stupendous shape if you knew where to look.  Finding and enjoying their beauty pre-settlement wouldn't have been too hard a task throughout the fen and wet prairie regions of Ohio and the mid west/great lake states.  Being a life long fan of Big Ten football and basketball, I nicknamed this the "Big Ten orchid" for almost its entire geographical range occurring within states that are home to a conference's campus.

Closer look at their charming individual flowers

Within its wet prairie/meadow/marsh, fen, and shoreline habitats, prairie fringed orchid can grow upwards of four feet tall and contain well over 20 greenish-cream flowers spiraled around its stalk.  Each individual flower is about the size of a quarter and has its lower lip (labellum) deeply cut in a fringed fashion; almost as if the wind had shred and tattered tissue paper.  Their scent is light and faintly detectable by day but intensifies at night when its hawk and sphinx moth pollinators are most active and in the hunt for a nectar snack.

Handful of orchids peaking out above the sedges and grasses

I could witness these wondrous summer rarities every summer for the next 50 years and each meeting would be as precious and held dear as the last.  For your blogger nothing beats the sight of the prairie fringed orchids dancing in the warm summer breezes and their cream, waxy flowers gleaming in the sunlight.  There's little comparable to seeing their conspicuous wands contrasted against the surrounding green vegetation and brilliant sapphire sky.

A lovely pair of prairie fringed orchids

It may be hard to believe but the plant on the left in the photograph above could very well be older than I am. Fred Case, a brilliant botanist and master of North America's orchids recorded some plants eclipsing 30 years in age as an individual.  That's a lot of time, energy, and luck that has gone into an orchid that has evaded and escaped drought, flood, disease, browsing, and any kind of negative habitat change.  Just another reason to respect and appreciate these orchids not just for their looks but for their brawn as well.

E. Prairie Fringed Orchid (Platanthera leucophaea)

One of the more fun aspects to writing and publishing this blog is the opportunity to bring rare and unusual plants and habitats/ecosystems (like the prairie fringed orchid) home to those who cannot see or experience it for themselves.  I do my best to bring these topics and photos to life on your computer monitors and have you travel vicariously into the field with me; especially at sites and places as sensitive and secret as the prairie fringed orchids.

Orchid hiding alongside a spotted joe-pye weed (Eupatoriadelphus maculatus)

It really does seem like just the other day I was alongside these very orchids, admiring their physical charm and ghostly appearance like I am again a year later.  Even more difficult to believe is July is upon us again with so many more wonderful wildflowers and orchids to grace our landscape with their presence.  But you can't have July before you have the prairie fringed orchids knocking on the summer solstice's door once more...

100th Post: Taking a Look Back

100 published posts.  That's hard to believe for someone who started this blog from humble beginnings and had no clear idea of what to expect or how long it would last.  I'm just a geeky, nature-loving nerd who had a desire to begin sharing his experiences and limited knowledge of the botanical and natural world with anyone bored enough to pay attention.  Never in a hundred years did I think I would be so fortunate and lucky to have the following and community this blog has and is a part of.  The doors this blog has opened, the friendships it has kindled, and the never-ending inspiration it's been to me are things I could have never expected or predicted.  I cannot thank all my readers enough for your support and kind words over the past two and a half years; whether you are the occasional passerby or one of the faithful few who tunes in to each new post. Without your interest and encouragement I'm sure this blog would have folded and disappeared into internet anonymity long ago.

I know this blog waxes and wanes like the moon when it comes to new posts.  There is never a shortage of ideas, topics, treatments etc. to write and share but the free time and energy to do so fluctuates greatly.  It can be related to a small part-time job whose only compensation is comments, page views, and emails.  There's little guarantee all those long hours of creative writing and carefully planned words will even be read.  Your blogger certainly isn't selfless in his blogging though.  I do this for many personal reasons with none being more prevalent than treating this like a journal.  I thoroughly enjoy going back and rereading old posts and topics that I forgot I wrote about.  Re-experiencing those days in the field and the exciting discoveries and chance encounters remind me why I take the time to write and keep this blog running.  I hope to continue this new year's current trend of consistent posting and new publications but would be a fool to make any promises. That being said I can promise to give it a legitimate effort and try!  I hope to continue to bring my faithful readers more and more original and engaging posts for as long as I have the fire burning inside me to do so!

I'd like to continue with the theme of reminiscing for this 100th post and count down (in no particular order) ten of my favorite posts and topics from the past.  Each one was a blast to write up and put together and are something I can fondly look back on.  Each photograph is accompanied with a link to the corresponding blog post for those interested!  So without further ado here they are:

Federally threatened prairie fringed orchid (Platanthera leucophaea)

It's only appropriate I start off with my favorite of all our native orchids: the eastern prairie fringed orchid (Platanthera leucophaea).  This great rarity is so scarce across its range it's been listed as a federally threatened species and is at continued risk of extinction from habitat loss and alteration.  I finally got to see this spectacular plant in bloom a few summers ago and it was an experience I will never forget.

On the limestone alvar shores of the Bruce peninsula, Ontario

A couple summers past saw your blogger visit a small spit of limestone known as the Bruce peninsula in Ontario, Canada.  This fascinating landscape is home to many rare species of plants and widely known for its picturesque rocky shores and sheer cliffs along the brilliant aqua waters of Lake Huron and the Georgian Bay. If you look carefully in the foreground of the photo above you can make out tiny yellow patches of the globally rare lakeside daisy (Tetraneuris herbacea) growing in the cracks of the alvar limestone pavement.

Grove of old-growth tuliptrees in Davey Woods nature preserve

Few other ecosystems amaze and excite like those of old-growth forests.  The ancient, leviathan trees stand testament to what mother nature can do when time and opportunity is on her side.  This particular photo is of your blogger's father standing in an exceptional grove of tuliptrees in Davey Woods nature preserve in west-central Ohio.  Another exciting example of an old-growth woods featured on this blog is the unique sweetgum/beech flatwoods of Tribbett Woods nature preserve in southeastern Indiana.

Stunning rosebud orchid (Cleistes bifaria) in southern Kentucky

I could just as easily make this entire blog devoted to my orchid forays and endeavors.  It seems like every other post is dedicated to their complex beauty and intriguing life histories.  The rosebud orchid (Cleistes bifaria) was another long-awaited life species I finally got to mark off in southern Kentucky.  I find it to be one of the most tropical looking of our continent's indigenous orchid taxa and just too stunning for words.

Red-tailed Hawk patiently waiting for its next meal

Some of the best and most rewarding of moments in nature are those you come across by complete chance. While out for a drive through the countryside of my home area of Ohio, I stumbled upon a gorgeous red-tailed hawk in the midst of hunting.  I pulled off the side of the road and proceeded to watch him successfully catch and eat a couple mice from his wooden perch.  They are such majestic creatures who live out their lives without even a passing thought from most people too busy to pay attention.

The timeless showy lady's slippers (Cypripedium reginae) of Cedar Bog

Ah, no orchid freak's life list would be complete without the timeless splendor of Cedar Bog's showy lady's slipper (Cypripedium reginae) display come June.  The largest of our native orchids and arguably the showiest (pun intended), these floral wonders need no introduction and can certainly speak for themselves.  If you've never caught them in bloom before you must mark down early June on your calendars for 2013!

Lesser fringed gentians (Gentianopsis virgata) of Betsch Fen

There's no better way to close out the growing season each autumn than to witness the electric blue display of the lesser fringed gentians (Gentianopsis virgata) in Betsch Fen.  It has become an annual pilgrimage for this botanist to close out another exciting and successful year of botanizing with their unbeatable exhibition.  This past season was exceptionally spectacular and choked the fen with hundreds of gentians in full bloom under the waning sun.

Famous dunes of the Sleeping Bear Dunes national lakeshore

Few other places are as heavenly and ingrained in my memory as northern Michigan during the summer months. From South Manitou Island and its virgin grove of enormous white cedars (Thuja occidentalis), to the federally endangered Michigan monkeyflower (Mimulus michiganensis) that exists nowhere else on the planet; the flora and sights of this area are nigh on unbeatable.  If you've never experienced Sleeping Bear Dunes national lakeshore you really must add it to your list of must-visit places!  You will not be disappointed.

Calm waters of Pyramid Lake in the mountains of the southern Adirondacks in upstate New York

The Adirondacks of upstate New York.  Hands down one of the most gorgeous and incredible places I have ever laid eyes on and a time and experience I will never, ever forget.  If you haven't checked out the three part series from this past July on the flora and landscape of the area, you can find them here: Part I, Part II, and Part III.

Stunningly tiny small white lady's slippers (Cypripedium candidum)

It's only appropriate to end with an orchid after starting out with one!  Another of my absolute favorites are the diminutive blooms of the small white lady's slippers (Cypripedium candidum).  I will never forget my shocked expression upon seeing these beauties for the first time; they are beyond tiny!  If you are wise and lucky enough to attend Flora-Quest this spring you may just get to see these wonders in person.

I would like to close with another sincere thank you to all the readers and followers who have kept this blog alive and the passion within me to keep it going.  It hasn't always been easy or the top priority but without you I can't say I would be in the same place and shoes I'm in today.  This blog has been an amazing resource and I have all you to thank!  So here's to another 100+ posts on the Natural Treasures of Ohio and beyond!