#epipactis

[lichenaday]

One thing I love about lichen hunting is all the other organisms you get to meet on your search. We recently went on a collection trip to find rare Ricasolia amplissima in the Alps, and look at all the native orchids I got to meet!

Left to right:

Top row: Gymnadenia conopsea; Epipactis palustris; Neottia ovata

Middle row: Epipactis atrorubens; Ophrys insectifera

Bottom row: Dactylorhiza fuchsii; Platanthera chlorantha; Epipactis helleborine

[thelethalsilence]

[geopsych]

Epipactis helleborine

Broad-leaved helleborine, producing narcotics without a license on main—Main Street, that is. These plants are nonnative orchids that grow as volunteers in gardens and woodlands in our area. In some places they’re even invasive but here they don’t seem to cause any problems.

At one time it was thought that only humans produced the narcotic painkiller oxycodone but no, orchids, the plants that seem to go to any length to get pollinated without having to produce sweet nectar, came up with it before we did, at least in this case. Botanists noticed wasps behaving strangely after sipping the liquid in the little cups the flowers provide and when they tested it they found several interesting compounds including oxycodone (and poisons that would make it dangerous for us to try). Some of the chemicals attract pollinators with their scent and the oxycodone and maybe some of the other substances cause the pollinators to stumble and linger, making them more likely to pollinate the flowers!

There’s a study but I’m having trouble pasting it here, definitely showing oxycodone in the nectar. Does it’s addictiveness raise pollination rates? I’m sure it’s being looked into. Meanwhile wasps in my town are feeling no pain. Edit: Here's the link to the study: https://www.aloki.hu/pdf/0302_029038.pdf Thank you to @enbynaoto for that!

[wildflowers-of-southern-ontario]

Broad-leafed Helleborine Epipactis helleborine Orchidaceae

Photographs taken on July 21, 2023, at Mono Cliffs Provincial Park, Mono, Ontario, Canada.

[elektroskopik]

Broad-leaved Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine) in bloom at the Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. Helleborine is a species of orchid found originally in Eurasia but has spread via anthropogenic means as an invasive species throughout the eastern US and Canada.

[birdsy-purplefishes]

#BetterLateThanNever: Apparently my motto for finding #EpipactisGigantea/ #GiantStreamOrchid this year. I found tons of them but the flowers were all dried up. They still look cool but they’re prettier when they’re fresh. #californianativeplants #sandiegonativeplants #streamorchid #epipactis #orchidaceae #wildorchids #orchids #subbloom2021 #californiawildflowers #sandiegowildflowers (at Laguna Mountains) https://www.instagram.com/p/CRpLICvDibw/?utm_medium=tumblr

[conspectusargosy]

Darwin Falls on edge of Death Valley is a rare source of year-round water in the desert. Seeming out of sorts with the rest of the region, it supports a wide variety of plants including Blue-Eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium) and Stream Orchids (Epipactis). The creek flows through a canyon until it is absorbed into the ground leaving just a moist track, but all along the way life abounds.

[onlyartshop]

Richard Maury. Epipactis Ричард Мори. Дремлик