Summary on Orchids of Barrier Islands of Mid Atlantic States.
 

In the October to December issue of The Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society an article was published describing the presence of native North American orchids on Mid Atlantic Barrier Islands. Eric E. Lamont of the Institute of Systematic Botany of the New York Botanical Gardens, Bronx NY, and Richard Stalter of St. John’s University Jamaica, NY have over the past 25 years have been conducting floristic inventories of Atlantic coast barrier islands from North Carolina to New York and observed and documented 17 orchid species.
The most common to least common species they encountered were Spiranthes vernalis, Spiranthes cernua, Cypripedium acaule, Listera australis, Plantanthera cristata, Pogonia ophioglossoides, Spiranthes odorata, Malaxis spicata, Spiranthes praecox, Tipularia discolor, Calopogon tuberosus, Corallorhiza wisteriana, Epipactis helleborine, Goodyera pubescens, Habenaria repens, Spiranthes lacera var. gracilis and Spiranthes laciniata.
Some species were found to occur in large populations of 1000’s of individuals while others were found in just mere handfuls. Platanthera cristata, Spiranthes cernua, S. praecox, S. vernalis and Tipularia discolor were found in large populations, with one population of Platanthera cristata occurring in a moist maritime woodland on Assateague Island, Virginia consisting of 1000’s of individuals dominated by yellow flowers possibly representing forma staminea. The Spiranthes species were also represented by widely scattered populations numbering in the 1000’s in moist sandy soils along roadsides on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Tipularia discolor was found in mature maritime deciduous Beech forest at Kitty Hawk Woods on Bodie Island, North Carolina.
Calopogan tuberosus, Cypripedium acaule and Pogonia ophioglossoides occur in populations of 100’s of individuals in restricted ranges in barrier islands of North Carolina and Virginia. Epipactus helleborine is a recent introduction (from Eurasia) in New York harbor barrier Islands (Ellis Island) and was also found at Sandy Hook, NJ. This species has been described as an invasive weed, which here forms a habitat at disturbed sites. The remaining species listed on paragraph 2 have been found to be rare with few populations and/or a few individuals.
Those islands with a variety of habitats have been identified as areas of high orchid diversity. The region between and including Nags Head Woods and Kitty Hawk Woods on Bodie Island, North Carolina, provides suitable habitat for a relatively large number of orchid species, as well as False Cape, Virginia and Assteague Island, Virginia.
The authors have observed a decline in number of orchid populations on barrier islands of the Middle Atlantic States. This is most likely, according the authors, due to development caused destruction of suitable habitat. The barrier Islands of New Jersey being the most severely impacted. The islands of Virginia and North Carolina have seen less disturbance thanks to management by the federal government.

To read this article see:
Lamont, Eric E. and R. Stalter 2007. Orchids of Atlantic coast barrier islands from North Carolina to New York. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 134(4), pp, 540-551.

Thanks, Tindo. I am very interested in North American native spp and this fits right in. I am not surprised by all the Spiranthes, but a couple others did surprise me. I have never been to the barrier islands and had a pre-conceived notion on how they looked and what the habitat might have been. I think I was way off.

I've been going to the barrier islands for the last 20 years, and have never seen a single orchid there - must not of been looking in the right places! Would never of thought they would survive there. That's awesome!

I love wild orchids! I spend as much time as possible in late spring/early winter hiking in the Alps looking for more orchids. There is such a wide variety. I've seen the "invasive weed" Epipactis helleborine before, in it's natural habitat, in the south of France. It's a protected species here. Gorgeous plant! I have pics of others in my gallery in your interested Tin.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ctis_small.JPG

Here are some of my favorite ones. I put the translation of the french common name, since some are interesting!

Ophrys apifera. (honeybee orchid)
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ille_small.JPG

Ophrys fuciflora (bumblebee orchid)
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...rdon_small.JPG

Aceras anthropophorum - natural hybrid with no clue what (hangman orchid)
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...his_simia_.jpg

Orchis militaris (military orchid) http://www.orchidboard.com/community...aire_small.JPG

Himantoglossum hircinum (billygoat orchid - it's a stinker, thus the name!)
http://www.orchidboard.com/community...1164_small.JPG

I think there are probably many everywhere in the USA, but the problem is being in the right place at the right time!!

Helliborin are protected in many areas of US as well. It is a very rare plant in most places, so I don't understand the "invasive weed" label. It can be a very beautiful plant.

I couldn't resist posting this next pic. It's not an orchid, but still deserves a place here! And yes, this is the true color of the flower. It's that blue! The high levels of UV rays at high altitude make flower colors more intense.

Gentiana verna

It's really to bad you have to put up with plants like this :evil: :biggrin: Blues are especially hard to capture on film, but today's new digital cameras seem to make it possible (as with your picture). Nice picture Camille.

I ckecked it out on the USDA website. It's not listed in the invassive/noxious weeds list, but it's no protected either. It's got no status. But seems to have spread throughout the USA and is everywhere except the midwest.

speaking of blues and cameras
 

Here's a few pics from Colorado that I took within the last few years... there seemed to be a fair number of very bright blue and pink flowers... and the sky of course is a ridiculously beautiful blue. As you can see, sometimes the camera captures the blue nicely, and sometimes it gets all funky. Same with the hot pinks.

One day they might be able to capture the true color of nature, well at least how we humans see it.

These were taken with just a Nikon CoolPix S1... nothing fancy. Would of been much better shots with some filters and decent lenses.

Nice pics!! The clover is nice, but too bad the dianthus doesn't seem to come out well, unless it really is colored like that! And the scenery reminds me of the Alps, even though our trees are different and I usually hike way above the tree line!

When I picked out my digital camera two of my major criteria were good macro shots and good color rendering. I'm happy with mine (Canon Powershot A520), it does a good job with the colors, although it does have problems with deep purples (like violets). All the blues come out true.

Maybe that's why it's a rare species here? Michigan is midwest. I do know it's protected from collection on US Forest Service property.

The dianthus actually was pretty close to that coloring, just not quite as eye poppingly bright! You can see the edges of the hot pink didn't render very well, but the reds were true to color.

Most of those pictures were on our way up Long Peak, which is a little over 14,000 feet high (4.2km). Had to turn back shortly before the top due to storm clouds moving in. Overall was about 9 hours of hiking, we tried to do it in one day.

After I got down I started throwing up pretty bad. I ended up drinking 2.5 liters of water on the hike, but I didn't replenish my electrolytes... should of drank enhanced water instead of plain H20. That, and we should of hiked a little slower!

Here's a couple other shots well above the tree line. They have these weird rodents up there, called Marmots, like giant rats or beavers without tails, scary things, they come right up to you to get food. Probably weighs 9kg.

Totally hijacked this thread! Oops, sorry! :hijacked:

It's so breathtakingly beautiful!! Too bad it's so far from me, because I would have gone for a hike! We have those giant rodents too, marmottes in French. I also was lucky enough to see a group of chamois. I also saw a field full of edelweiss once, but I had forgotten the spare batteries for the camera...:( I can't wait for summer so that I can hit the trails again!
I think it's a interesting thread hijack! So hope no one objects that I continued it;) Or else we'll ask to move this discussion elsewhere!

If I ever make it to France we'll have to take a hike in the Alps - I want to see wild orchids as well!

This coming Saturday some of the members of the Houston Orchid Society are going out to the Piney Woods of East Texas to search for some native orchids. It will be my third time. Last year we started a project to polinate, set seed and harvest the endangered Cypripedium kentuckyense. We have seedlings now (I have one, since last week, it is about 7-8 cm high, two leaves). The plan is to repopulate these orchids into the habitat in a couple of years. We have a grant, not from AOS, nor HOS, but another group, to cover our costs of flasking and replating.
We also observed an abortive polination of one plant in bloom when a bumblebee dove into the pouch of the only flower in the vicinity. Boy, was it upset! Tring to get out, it was too big to pass behind the staminode and take pollen. Instead the clever little thing did a perfect vertical climb out of the center and just barely cleared the edges of the pouch.
This is the very orchid we then selfed and got the seed pod a couple of months later.
I guess this makes me a father... sort of.
I'll keep everybody posted on the trip after I get back.
Ted

There were two this Saturday, only one the first time we went. The first was in great condition, newly opened, with a flower just opening next to it (which we did not pollinate becasue Cyps do not mature the pollen until two or three days after opening). The second site had extremely damaged plants: a flood had washed cubic yards of fine sand all over the place, and the plants were cut off at about 12" (30 cm) eliminating most blooms for the season. There was one damaged flower that still had pollen so we selfed it, but the others, what a loss for this season. It is another reason why we must continue our efforts at re-introducing plants into that environment: the numbers are not sufficent to guarantee neither cross pollination nor continuation of the species in situ.
Ted

Here is a pic of one of the pollinated flowers.
http://www.orchidboard.com/community/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=12290&ppuser=2546&sl=t[/IMG]