After all the hot weather we had this summer, I thought that I'd have to nix the trips I'd planned to the Pinelands, but the past several days have been fantastic. I had an amazing trip yesterday with a friend of mine, and wanted to share some of the things we saw. We started out in Bryne State Forest, and found a little swamp with a couple dozen Platanthera cristata in full bloom:
Some of these plants were tiny, but a few were pushing two feet or more! There were also P. blephariglottis just starting to flower, but we (sadly) didn't see anything that looked like their hybrid. I didn't catch many other flowers, since many of them were out in the middle of wetlands and too far out for the lens on my camera. Here's one that I could snap, a nice clump of some yellow-eyed grass (Xyris sp.) perched on a little sphagnum hummock:
I've got no idea which species that was, since I couldn't get close enough to get a good view (or a closer picture). We next stopped at Whitesbog for a wander around. I know it's not uncommon and certainly not part of the special Pine Barrens flora, but I've got a soft spot for Lobelia cardinalis; there aren't that many plants that are so red, and it reminds me of the firepinks that were so common in the spring when I used to live in Indiana:
We next headed to check out another mixed population of P. cristata and P. blephariglottis, and on the way saw a fantastic stand of the latter on the side of the road:
We counted nearly 600 plants in bud or in flower! There are very few places I've ever seen so many flowering orchids, and certainly not so close together. After taking some time to shoot some pictures, we moved on to our intended destination. There were about a dozen P. blephariglottis blooming and a couple P. cristata in bud. And about a dozen lemon-yellow Platanthera x canbyi in flower:
My big hobby is hiking on the weekends and taking pictures of our lovely native orchids, but after doing it for a few years, it's getting really tough to find ones I haven't seen before. P. x canbyi is one of those; it's the twenty-sixth kind of orchid I've seen since I moved to NJ in 2006, and it's always a special trip to find a new one. Some days I wish I lived a little closer to the Pinelands, since it's such a spectacular place to spend a day out on a hike.
What a weekend! And to top it off, I found Platanthera flava var. herbiola (number 27!) up in northern NJ today.
Some of these plants were tiny, but a few were pushing two feet or more! There were also P. blephariglottis just starting to flower, but we (sadly) didn't see anything that looked like their hybrid. I didn't catch many other flowers, since many of them were out in the middle of wetlands and too far out for the lens on my camera. Here's one that I could snap, a nice clump of some yellow-eyed grass (Xyris sp.) perched on a little sphagnum hummock:
I've got no idea which species that was, since I couldn't get close enough to get a good view (or a closer picture). We next stopped at Whitesbog for a wander around. I know it's not uncommon and certainly not part of the special Pine Barrens flora, but I've got a soft spot for Lobelia cardinalis; there aren't that many plants that are so red, and it reminds me of the firepinks that were so common in the spring when I used to live in Indiana:
We next headed to check out another mixed population of P. cristata and P. blephariglottis, and on the way saw a fantastic stand of the latter on the side of the road:
We counted nearly 600 plants in bud or in flower! There are very few places I've ever seen so many flowering orchids, and certainly not so close together. After taking some time to shoot some pictures, we moved on to our intended destination. There were about a dozen P. blephariglottis blooming and a couple P. cristata in bud. And about a dozen lemon-yellow Platanthera x canbyi in flower:
My big hobby is hiking on the weekends and taking pictures of our lovely native orchids, but after doing it for a few years, it's getting really tough to find ones I haven't seen before. P. x canbyi is one of those; it's the twenty-sixth kind of orchid I've seen since I moved to NJ in 2006, and it's always a special trip to find a new one. Some days I wish I lived a little closer to the Pinelands, since it's such a spectacular place to spend a day out on a hike.
What a weekend! And to top it off, I found Platanthera flava var. herbiola (number 27!) up in northern NJ today.
