#cranefly orchid

[vandaliatraveler]

Photos from a mid-summer hike in the woods surrounding Friendship Hill National Historic Site, a short drive from where I live in Morgantown. The park borders the Monongahela River, where pawpaw (Asimina triloba) is a dominant species in the riparian woods of the floodplain. The fruit are rapidly maturing and will be ready for harvest in September, which means one thing for me: pawpaw ice cream. Also, our gorgeous native hibiscus, swamp rose-mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos), also known as eastern rose-mallow and crimson-eyed rose-mallow, is at peak bloom along the river's moist banks.

More wonderful finds (from top): starry campion (Silene stellata), also known as widow's frill, a graceful, summer-blooming forb that should be planted more frequently in native wildflower gardens; a common earthball (Scleroderma citrinum) growing in the crease of a moss-covered log; a lovely black-and-gold flat millipede (Apheloria virginiensis) fleeing from the photographer into the leaf litter; a bronze fern (Sceptridium dissectum f. obliquum), which, like all grape ferns, depends on mycorrhizal fungi for nourishment in the early stage of its life; a cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor), which was growing in close proximity to the fern and also depends on mycorrhizal fungi for survival; pale-leaf woodland sunflower (Helianthus strumosus), whose luminous yellow flowers seek sunny openings at trail edges and along streambanks; and the cream-colored, bell-shaped flowers of American bladdernut (Staphylea trifolia L.), an attractive, suckering shrub of floodplain forests.

[continent-of-wild-endeavor]

Tipularia discolor - Cranefly orchid

Yesss, native orchid blooming time! I love these, and they're not easy to spot. They're spikes of small flowers, brown against the leaf litter, and they don't even have leaves in summer. But they're so special.

[thebashfulbotanist]

Orchids in Fall

You might not think of orchids as temperate or fall/winter plants, but here in Virginia it’s a great time to look for orchid leaves right now in November!

Three species are pictured here - the cranefly orchid, Tipularia discolor, at top, and the putty root orchid, Aplectrum hyemale in the middle. They’re easily distinguished by the tiny pinstripe white veins on the putty root orchid and the more solid green with well-spaced purple veins on the cranefly orchid. The leaves of these orchids die back when they begin to bloom in spring (putty root orchid) or late summer (cranefly orchid) and regrow in the fall. The flowers are small and occur on a single, leafless stalk.

At the bottom is the distinctive rattlesnake plantain orchid, Goodyera pubescens. This plant gets small white flowers on a single stalk when it blooms in summer. Unlike the other two orchids pictured here, the leaves don’t ever die back. 

[vandaliatraveler]

Some places are haunted by their memories, good and bad, more than others, especially those unfortunate places that have been cleansed and purged of their memory anchors, the abandoned haunts and artifacts of long-lost communities and their industry. In the places where those anchors remain, memories settle on the land as a bitterweet residue of sadness and hope, a byproduct of tragedy, deprivation, exploitation, and renewal. They provide a running commentary on who we are and where we came from, what events brought us to our current states. I can't help but be drawn to these places and selfishly absorb their memories before the combination of progress and time inevitably removes them from our collective consciousness. The lower section of the Mon River Trail, from Opekiska to Pricketts Fort State Park, basks contentedly in its memories for now; take a few footsteps into the quiet woods along the path, and you will find them persisting in a state of slow decay. Yet even in the shadows of long-forgotten beehive coke ovens and their poisonous waste rises a beacon of hope - the extraordinary cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor), a pioneer plant of successional forests that thrives in the detritus of our industrial past.

[vandaliatraveler]

Coopers Rock State Forest hugs the eastern rim of the Cheat River Canyon, with upland slopes rising to 2,400 ft (732 m) above sea level, nearly double the horizontal elevation of the Mon River Trail. Although the spring wildflower show on the mountain lags a week or two behind that at lower elevations, it's starting to make good progess. From top: Clay Run at a healthy flow; the reticulated leaves of downy rattlesnake plantain (Goodyera pubescens), a common terrestrial orchid of the local dry woods; the young, intricately-patterned leaves of rattlesnake hawkweed (Hieracium venosum), so named because it grows in the same habitat favored by timber rattlesnakes; long-spurred violet (Viola rostrata), a lilac-colored beauty with amusingly-long spurs; yet more early blue coshosh (Caulophyllum giganteum), because I can never get enough of this delicate, shrubby-looking herb; broadleaf toothwort (Cardamine diphylla), also known as two-leaved toothwort and crinkleroot, a member of the mustard family with edible roots and blunt-toothed leaves bearing striking purple undersides; round-lobed hepatica (Anemone americana), an upland relative of sharp-lobed hepatica that prefers drier, more acidic soils; wood anemone (Anemone quinquefolia), also known as windflower and nightcaps, which forms extensive colonies in humus-rich soils along streambanks; the brilliant red berries of partridgeberry (Mitchella repens), a trailing, evergreen herb of forest floors; more cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor), whose leaves will die back in spring before the orchid blooms in summer; halberd-leaved yellow violet (Viola hastata). a ubiquitous, early spring violet of rich, decidous woods; and (below), typical timber rattlesnake habitat near Clay Run.

[vandaliatraveler]

Among the many fascinating terrestrial orchids found in Appalachia, cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor) has a particularly odd lidecycle. In late autumn, the plant produces a single leaf that disappears in the spring. The leaf is plain green (sometimes mottled green and purple) on top, and a vibrant maroonish-purple underneath. In mid-summer, long after the leaf has disappeared, the orchid sends up the most extraordinary, copper-brown flowering stalk from its corm, graced by tiny flowers that collectively give the appearance of hovering craneflies (see below). The flowers are tilted to allow pollen to attach to the eyes of the orchid's primary pollinator, noctuid moths. This orchid is an accomplished colonizer, spreading via a network of underground corms. Indeed, the plants above are part of a much larger colony located near the Mon River Trail - one that blooms impressively in late July/early August.

[vandaliatraveler]

Above are a few photos from a long, mid-summer bike ride on the Mon River Trail yesterday. My destination was the historic beehive coke ovens at mile marker 22, where one of the most elusive and delicate of Appalachia’s terrestrial orchids, cranefly orchid (Tipularia discolor), blooms this time of year. This colonizing perennial has one of the most fascinating life-cycles in the plant kingdom. Hairy leafcup (Smallanthus uvedalia), also known as bear’s foot due to its enormous, lobed leaves, is another great summer wildflower. This perennial’s massive blooms arguably draw even more pollinators than those of milkweed.

From top: American bellflower (Campanula americana), a tall, graceful lover of shady woodland edges; an arrowhead orb weaver (Verrucosa arenata), enjoying an early brunch from her delicately-spun web; an eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) taking a sip of sweet nectar from hairy leafcup; the bright yellow flowerheads of hairy leafcup, which draw a steady stream of pollinators; historic beehive coke ovens, crucial to fueling the iron and steel industry in the late nineteenth century; and the delicate, drooping flowers of cranefly orchid, also known as crippled cranefly orchid. 

[vandaliatraveler]

From my bike ride on the Mon River Trail this past weekend: the beehive coke ovens along the trail continue to shrink into the encroaching forest. It’s quite the reclamation project. One of the collapsed ovens now serves as a half-baked nursery for cranefly orchids.