Orchids:
The next morning began strangely. We met at the trailhead, but as we
gathered our gear Jim
discovered that his wallet was missing. Ultimately, it turned out that it
had been stolen from his car the previous night. Fortunately, it was (mostly) retrieved by
the police, but what a pain in the bum!
The first site of the day was one that I had visited twice before, and really loved. It was another treacherous granite exposure
with water sheeting over its surface, but instead of housing Sarracenia purpurea, the site
had a nice population of the Federally Endangered Sarracenia jonesii.
On my previous visits I had explored the exposure to my satisfaction, but Jim assured me that I had missed a second bald below the
first, where yet more plants could be found. This was exciting news.
We reached the bald easily enough, and on the way saw a little orchid that Jim identified for me as
Goodyera pubescens (shown above). Here is a photo of the plant's
unimpressive flowers.
We also saw another small orchid that Jim identified as
Gymnadeniopsis clavellata, although he
acknowledged some controversy regarding this name.
