Those two cups of Red Rose tea had something to do with waking up at 3am last night, but the inability to turn off my brain made me think of several things worth blogging about. One of which was that day's walk with friend J.J. in the NC forests. Mountain spring time growth got J.J. excited enough to pop in and call me out for a walk. As we headed on our journey up the road talking about Bluettes and Pink ladies slipper, I showed her some plants I thought were the latter, but were actually imposters! The imposters growing in my woods, look very much like the leaves of Pink Ladies Slipper, but as J.J. pointed out, have too many leaves. Ladies slipper have only 2 perpendicular leaves coming out from the flower.
We headed to several woodland pockets where she showed me one of nature's most exotic woodland orchids. The woods showed no sign of man. Not even a step. Old growth Hemlocks, thick carpet of pine straw and gorgeous 2 leaved Ladies slippers all over the place! One flower looked grey but still held its form. As I touched it a cloud of spore-like dust was released!
From the USGS webpage: "In order to survive and reproduce, pink lady's slipper interacts with a fungus in the soil from the Rhizoctonia genus. Generally, orchid seeds do not have food supplies inside them like most other kinds of seeds. Pink lady’s slipper seeds require threads of the fungus to break open the seed and attach them to it. The fungus will pass on food and nutrients to the pink lady's slipper seed. When the lady’s slipper plant is older and producing most of its own nutrients, the fungus will extract nutrients from the orchid roots."
The moments magic continued as in the next woodland crop sat a just emerged black swallowtail butterfly...body still fat, wings still creased and unfolding! The moments after the birth of a beautiful butterfly next to a rarely seen magical flower! If only Frodo were here!
Look closely...the black swallowtail is dead center in one photo and directly behind the pink ladies slipper in the other.
We found several other outcroppings of ladies slipper as well as a hemlock with hundreds of years of faces in its branching,
and an easy to miss new fungi J.J. referred to as matchstick fungus or “the devil’s matchstick” Cladonia floerkeana; a tiny, red tipped lichen growing on dead wood. It carpeted the ground in a sunny patch of clearing along the road.
Walking back thru the woods, we came out to the most prolific display of bluettes fielded along the creek. Patches of white and blue ones gave the impression of stars in a sky of green! Gorgeous! Bluettes are the flower on top of a plant looking very much like baby's tears (a houseplant I used to have in college) a moss-like creeping plant with tiny, round, shiny green leaves. But bluettes are a similar plant with a tiny 1/8" flower profusely covering the top in dense clumps. Quite a lot of magic for one day and one walk.
Also bought the cutest birdhouse...a mobile home for birds; birdhouse on wheelbarrow! From the local Thrift Store!
and an easy to miss new fungi J.J. referred to as matchstick fungus or “the devil’s matchstick” Cladonia floerkeana; a tiny, red tipped lichen growing on dead wood. It carpeted the ground in a sunny patch of clearing along the road.
Walking back thru the woods, we came out to the most prolific display of bluettes fielded along the creek. Patches of white and blue ones gave the impression of stars in a sky of green! Gorgeous! Bluettes are the flower on top of a plant looking very much like baby's tears (a houseplant I used to have in college) a moss-like creeping plant with tiny, round, shiny green leaves. But bluettes are a similar plant with a tiny 1/8" flower profusely covering the top in dense clumps. Quite a lot of magic for one day and one walk.
Also bought the cutest birdhouse...a mobile home for birds; birdhouse on wheelbarrow! From the local Thrift Store!
