House Visit

The bright golden prothonotary warblers are back for their spring visit.   One colorful male sat on a branch near the birdhouse and sang with operatic gusto on a sunny afternoon.

Soon after, we saw the female, peeking out of the birdhouse to be sure the coast was clear before she dashed out for a bit.

While she was gone and everything was quiet, I noticed a little chickadee at the birdhouse.

 

He stopped by and stuck his head in as if to check on the babies while mother warbler was out for some lunch.  The chickadee didn’t stay long but soon flitted on his way.

Last year this particular birdhouse near the back porch was home to a family of chickadees.  Perhaps this was one of the youngsters stopping by to check out the old home place.

 

 

 

 

 

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Lady Slipper Gallery

This gallery contains 5 photos.

The lady slipper orchids in the woods near my home and studio are more prolific than usual this year!  We counted nearly 60 flowers in one area and over 50 in another.  The shy wildflowers seem to enjoy the damp … Continue reading

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Orchid Trap

The charming pink Lady Slipper orchids represent the innocence of springtime. But looks are deceiving. The demure and gentle looking lady slipper is a well disguised trap!

I sat among  the ladies, sketch book in hand, and watched as a fat bee hovered around the patch of lady slippers.  He buzzed in lazy circles, attracted by the bright pink veins.  He was led to the indentation where he fell through a split into the pouch itself.  The whole flower shook for several seconds while the bee carried out his pollinating duties.

Inside the flower, tiny hairs led the insect to the stigma.  Brushing by, he deposited pollen from his furry hairs. As he squeezed out of the opening at the tip, he received a new load of pollen from one of the two anthers.  He didn’t seem at all perturbed by the encounter, but soon zoomed off through the trees at flower height.

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Returning Ladies

Lady Slipper Orchids

Every spring I look forward to the appearance of Lady Slipper orchids in the forest by my studio, bright pinks flashing in the dappled woodland shadows.  Each  year there are dozens of blossoms in patches under oak, dogwood and maple trees.  The majority of the native wildflowers were always here but I have transplanted a few plants that were in a high-traffic footpath.   Each small clump or patch of flowers is familiar as are the handful of unusually pale flowers (that get darker pink as they mature).

As members of the orchid family, lady-slippers have a unique dependence on the oak leaves in which they usually grow.  Not the leaves themselves, but the fungus hyphae that permeate the leaves, turning them into peat on the forest floor.  Lifting a layer of damp leaves will reveal a white lacy webbing.  This is the actual plant or hyphae of which mushrooms are the fruiting body.  This hyphae grows through the leaf layers, breaking down the organic matter and turning it to humus that is the spongy soil of a forest.  In late summer, the hyphae will grow mushrooms to send out more spores, to grow more hyphae.

Lady-slippers have a close and necessary (symbiotic) relationship to the mushrooms.  All orchids have immature seeds.  Most seeds have a tiny plant embryo with food for its development.  The seeds of the lady-slipper are more simple.  Under the microscope a seed looks like a football shaped netting holding a single round center inside.  The seed must be ‘infected’ by a friendly (non-pathogenic) fungus hyphae in order to germinate.  The fungus continues to act as a digestive system assimilating food materials for the orchid, and in return receiving food from the flower.

This interrelationship between fungus and flower is the reason that these fragile ladies do not transplant easily.  The new home would have to guarantee the same exact fungus for the flower to survive.

Very rarely do the plants survive being transplanted from their native space to another area because the new home must have that precise strain of fungi in the soil.  I am able to transplant plants to my area because the flowers are already growing here.  If you see these flowers in the forest please do not pick or disturb them and never attempt to dig them up!

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