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Mountain Seeps Spring 2020 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2020) |
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Mountain Seeps Spring 2020 |
All Text & Images: Copyright (2020) |
| April 7, 2020: First visit of the year... |
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| Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium sp.). |
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| Yellow Star Grass (Hypoxis hirsuta) |
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| Glade Spurge (Euphorbia purpurea), at the extreme southern limit of its range. |
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| Glade Spurge - flower detail |
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| May 16, 2020: For some time now there had been discussion about a certain orchid here, specifically whether it was species Platanthera flava var. flava, or P. flava var. herbiola. At some point (and this is hearsay), it was decided it must be var. flava. I have no idea if any of these folks saw the plant(s) in bloom. In 2018, Tom Patrick and I were girdling some trees here to open up the area to more light (there is another uncommon orchid species that also grows here). The single plant was 3-4 weeks past bloom, but some long bracts were visible, and Tom thought these were (in his words) "the long lost var. herbiola" from this site. I tried to catch the plant in bloom in 2019, but something had chewed off the one stalk. I returned today and caught the plants (2 racemes this year!) in the early stages of bloom. The length of the bracts in relation to the flowers would seem to indicate that they are indeed var. herbiola (now named Platantherea herbiola). |
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| Tubercled Rein Orchid, aka Northern Gypsy-Spike (Platanthera herbiola) |
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| First raceme, just starting to bloom |
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| Second raceme, in bud |
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| Round-leaved Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) growing on a rock. |
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| May 20, 2020: I returned several days later to photograph the orchids in better bloom... |
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| Pair of Tubercled Rein Orchids |
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| Raceme in flower |
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| May 23, 2020: A few days later, I was in the area with a botanist friend. |
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| Just subtle changes from the previous image... |
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| June 10, 2020: A few assorted wildflowers... |
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| Beebalm (Monarda fistulosa) |
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| Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) |
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| Vasevine, aka Leatherflower (Clematis viorna) |
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| Clematis, with Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) |
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| Colicroot (Aletris farinosa) |
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| The Grass Pink Orchids were just starting to bloom... |
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| Grass Pink Orchid (Calopogon tuberosus) |
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| June 16, 2020: Not quite a week later, I returned to catch more of the Grass Pink Orchids in flower... |
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Grass Pink Orchids |
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| Clematis viorna |
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| I thought this Clematis flower was interesting. It was facing upwards, and one of the thick sepals was missing, exposing the flower's innards. |
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| Beebalm (Monarda fistulosa) |