Riverside Poison
Sharon August 15th, 2008
Along the Pocomoke River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, tangles of wildflowers are a summer delight. I stop often at the riverside in Snow Hill and walk the edges, looking for painting ideas.
Today the still water reflected a perfect day and the only sounds were cicadas and a rustle on the riverbank that might have been a shy duck or busy muskrat.
The pretty lacy white flowers look so much like Queen Anne’s Lace that it is sometimes hard to tell them apart.
These prefer the dampness at the river’s edge and are Swamp Hemlock, a rather poisonous native wildflower.
It is not a good idea to handle them so I tend to avoid collecting some to paint. The black, white and yellow caterpillar seems to enjoy the flowers, though, and quietly munches away. I am not sure but I think it may grow up to be an Anise Swallowtail butterfly.
When I do stop to collect some of the bindweed flowers farther down the shoreline all thoughts of photographing the lovely day are forgotten 
when I’m rudely attacked by several hornets! Blazing with hot pain in my swelling hand I abandon the river and head home to treat the stings.
The Pocomoke Forest and surrounding woodlands feature a variety of terrestrial orchids in mid summer. Among the tiniest is the cranefly orchid. These flowers are not as rare as they are nearly invisible, with the mosquito sized blossoms growing up a slender stalk against a forest background. They grow in damp woodlands from New York to eastern Texas but, as most orchids, they are very selective as to where they will grow, what insects pollinate them and what soils the seeds will germinate in.
Under magnification the tiny blossoms are obviously orchids, with the five petals and ornate lip common to larger varieties. The pale, curving lip of the flower is sticky and attracts nocturnal moths to pollinate these shy flowers. According to some experts, the flowers tilt one way and another on the stem so that the pollen grains will stick to one or the other of the moth’s compound eyes.
