Theft of an Endangered Plant!

American Ginseng is native to most eastern Canadian provinces. It is considered Globally Vulnerable, Endangered in Canada, and Vulnerable in Ontario where it is probably the most abundant. It prefers full shade in deciduous hardwood forests.

It therefore occurs in places like Rondeau, but the locations are never advertised. The reason? Historically it was introduced to China, and the roots are highly favoured for supposedly medicinal purposes. While it is grown commercially to try and satisfy the Asian demand, it is believed that wild grown individuals are more medicinally effective. Therefore any naturally occurring population is at risk.

I have been watching for naturally growing populations at Rondeau for many years, and fortunately on occasion even after exploring Rondeau's forests for more than 50 years, I even discover another plant or two, sometimes even a small cluster, in my travels. However as mentioned earlier, I never disclose the locations, and while I do post some populations or individuals on iNaturalist, they are always obscured locations.

This is what a plant looks like in early flowering condition.

 A closer look shows a few buds starting to open in June.

 And a little later there may be a few more flower buds open, or at least a little farther along.

By mid-July, there are quite a few buds in full development. In a good year, most individual flowers will develop green buds, but that doesn't happen all the time.

By early August, some will show signs of ripening...

...and in mid-August, more will have developed. This is the same plant, and some of the green buds have disappeared. Maybe they ripened and fell off, perhaps even were eaten by birds.

The same plant by late August, has only one green bud left to ripen.

Another nearby plant still has two quite vivid berries to show.

 This next one shows what a better growing season would result in: a nice tight cluster of red berries.

 

By late August, the ripe berries will be gone, and hopefully in a nearby place with good growing conditions. The berries will be eaten by birds or small mammals, and perhaps the undigested seeds will be eliminated in a good spot nearby.

 By mid-September, the plant looks well past its prime with the dark green leaves continuing to fade.

A cluster shows them all at about the same stage, taken in late September. This following photo was taken of another cluster I have been keeping an eye on for several years and while the leaves show late season development, all the leaves are still present. The unfortunate thing was that on Sept 22 when I was out and checked on the individual plant that has been shown in the previous photos, it was gone! Someone had taken it! And when I checked on another, small group of about seven plants not too far away, they too were gone. It wasn't just that their leaves had fallen and the remaining stems were all that was left, the complete plants had been removed, presumably for the roots!

As mid-October approaches, many plants have lost their leaves. This next photo was a cluster of almost twenty plants, and the only plant with any sign of leaves is the tiny one at the very upper left of the photo, just above the light-coloured X.

This shows a close-up of that little one in the previous photo.

 The point in all of this, is that I have been taking a close look at several populations that I have encountered over the years. And unfortunately two populations completely disappeared well before they should have done so naturally. One was a single individual, and was the one that I included several close-ups of the development near the beginning of this post. Another population of at least 7 plants disappeared far too early as well. They had been pulled out before the end of September.

 

The population of American Ginseng at Rondeau is not in its prime. In fact most plants are quite small, and the roots that are so appealing for supposed medical purposes are small as well. The size of the individual plants is likely due in part to the slow recovery of the forest under storey. As some readers will be well aware, Rondeau has had a deer over population for several decades, with the winter population approaching 600 individuals at one point. As a result in one cold winter near the peak of the winter population period, as many as 20 were known to have died of starvation. Hence the eventual re-occurrence of a deer control effort in the last 25 plus years, and now the winter population is somewhere around 150-175 animals. But the ongoing reduction of deer which are heavy browsers of plants like Ginseng, has only allowed the flora to recover quite slowly. A visit to either of the deer exclosures that were erected in the mid 1980s, and evaluating the flora inside vs outside is clearly a testament to the slow recovery of the natural flora in spite of the deer population reduction. Hence the Ginseng population as well as many other wildflower species is much more reduced than what it should be if the deer had been controlled all along.

 

So the survival of American Ginseng, through deer control, has been improved, but it will take time. In the meantime, some unethical individuals are on the lookout for this endangered plant, and removing some of the population for only marginal benefits to them, at best. 

 

Further challenges for Ginseng, and many other plant species at Rondeau is the loss of the forest canopy due to the Emerald Ash Borer killing off the dominant Ash trees, and more recently the arrival of the Beech Leaf Disease causing a significant decline in American Beech. With Ash and Beech being two of the main dominant forest canopy species, the under storey has changed a lot, with so much more shrub growth and an impact on the wildflowers. 

 

Managing such a nationally significant provincial park for so many reasons is not easy! 

 

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Late summer orchids of Rondeau, all are species at risk!

 There are several highlights for botanizing later in the summer. Certainly the main highlight for me is to check on three orchid species that are found at Rondeau, all of which are quite rare in Ontario. One is so rare that its only Canadian location is at Rondeau. Another one is quite restricted, but so very small that the average person would not even see it. The third, and latest flowering one, is rare, but relatively widespread in the park and generally more visible.

 Keen botanists will likely already know the three I am talking about. The first, and rarest one, is the Nodding Pogonia (Triphora trianthophoros). 

Its peak time of flowering is typically the third week of August, although on rare occasions I have seen one or more in flower on even the last day of July. This year I went out into one of its best known locations on August 1, just to see what was happening, and was quite surprised to see several in flower. One even had a double flower!

The tricky thing with this orchid is its flowering strategy. All the buds develop to a certain stage, and then remain as is. It takes a fairly significant drop in the overnight temperature to trigger the buds to open on the morning of the second day following this temperature drop. All the buds that are ready will open, but just for a single day, and it may be a week before the next suitable temperature drop triggers the next set of buds to open.

The weather this August was anything but suitable for this flowering strategy. An overnight temperature would seem suitable, but then the next three nights would see the temperature drop even more! I think the plants were a little confused with this abnormal sequence, and as a result, their flowering was difficult to predict. On more than one occasion I went out expecting, or at least hoping, to see some in flower, but in some cases they flowered the day before and were not worth bothering to photograph. And the next set of buds were not well developed at all. This next photo shows what a single plant looks like, from a distance of about 6", with a 100m macro lens! They can be easily missed, even when one knows exactly what to look for, so I seldom go out unless I am quite sure they will be in flower, and if it is the wrong day, I don't spend much time looking so as to not accidentally step on them.

I do know where some are likely to be found, even if not flowering, and by being extra careful, I managed to find some that were tucked beside a fallen log, and almost impossible to see. This next photo is of a pair of even tinier plants with very undeveloped flower buds, and again, photographed with a 100mm macro lens from a close distance. The plants are merely 4-5 cm high. Even at that, I greatly cropped the photo to get this.

Overall it was one of the poorest years I can remember in my 50+ years of monitoring this endangered orchid. Probably the relatively dry weather at a critical time was partly the cause. However I did manage to get a few photos. These next two were taken in the 3rd week of August window. All were almost pure white, and while I always hope for some with a magenta tinge that I find even more attractive, the second photo is the only one that had even a very slight magenta tinge. Ones with a magenta tinge usually occur towards the end of the flowering season. Oh well, maybe next year.

 After blooming, the seed pods develop, as this next photo shows. Upon ripening, the seed pods will become erect, and start to dry, with the sides of the pod starting to split open so that a slight gust of wind will cause the seeds inside to disperse.

The second orchid I referred to, is about the same size as the previous one, and at least once the flowers open up, will remain open for several days. However for the more common variety of this one, Autumn Coralroot (Corallorhiza odontorhiza) which is also rare, the flowers don't open, but are self-pollinated! The rarer variety, known as Pringle's Coralroot and shown here, has flowers that do open. This first photo shows a group of four plants.

A closer look at the arrangement of flowers.

Closer....

And finally, a 'head-on' view of the lip of a single flower, which is probably only about 4 mm wide.

Not exactly a show piece for the horticultural industry, but an interesting orchid nonetheless, and it is native!

The third, and last orchid to be found flowering at Rondeau is the more common of these three. It is known as Great Plain's Ladies' Tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum).

I found my first one with a few of the lower flowers starting to open up on September 13.

A couple of days later, there were a few more starting to open.

It is rare that all of the flowers are open at the same time, but sometimes most are. There are other species in the Spiranthes genus that look similar. A couple of the key characteristics of this one is that when in flower, it has a 'fragrance' that I think is similar to hot plastic. But without getting close enough to smell it, a close look shows a slightly yellow/tan colour well inside an open flower. None of the other Spiranthes have this coloration.

There is some slight hairiness to the outer white parts of the flower, and the sepals flare slightly back if viewed from the side.

 That's about it for Rondeau's orchids for this year. But by next May, another one of the 19 species of orchids will appear. Can't wait!

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Celebrating Christmas in Nature

Tis the season when Christmas is, or has been, celebrated by many. One of the ways I try and celebrate the Christmas season is to go out and wander around God’s creation, knowing He is with me. Anytime of the year, it can be so captivating and inspirational. Perhaps the renowned naturalist John Muir said it so well “In every walk in nature, one receives far more than one seeks.” I know I certainly do, and if I get a few photos to enjoy and share, so much the better. 

I have had a life-long connection to Rondeau as many will know, for which I am extremely grateful. Here is a handful of my favourite photos. This first one is from when I was giving an aerial tour to some former co-workers back in 1989.

The beach and first stages of vegetation development are easily enjoyed from along the east side.
 

September

January

 

 

Patterns in the sand are often seen, showing some interesting designs.

Just inland from the beach dunes is the beginning of the pine-oak savanna. This next photo was not take with a drone, but I climbed the lighthouse tower and got this back in about 1981. This was before the fenced tower base was well marked with No Trespassing signs.

 

 This next photo is of the relatively newly claimed oak savanna just east of the campground. Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, this area was regularly mowed as it was a picnic area. Since it wasn't being used all that much, and there was a need to save $$ from the regular mowing, it was allowed to be restored to something fairly natural. It has even been burned on several occasions.

 

Next is a different area featuring oak savanna, with Butterfly Milkweed one of the highlights. This area is immediately south of the campground, although it has not been burned all that regularly so it is a little more shrubby.

Heading a bit more inland, one quickly comes to the main part of the park's hardwood forest. The Tulip Tree Trail is a great spot to explore this. The first photo shows Marie, hugging one of the trio of Tulip Trees along the trail. I was initially just getting a photo of her beside the trees, to give it some scale, when on her own she decided to give one of them a hug. I'm so glad I captured this moment!

Here she is on a different occasion, walking along another section of that trail.

There are numerous things to see along this trail or in the general area. First off is one of the most endangered orchids in Canada, the Nodding Pogonia, which currently is known in Canada only from Rondeau. Sometimes one can find a single plant with three open flowers all at the same time......

...but a single flower is more the norm.

Something that is visible only for a few days in spring, is the developing leaves of Shagbark Hickory, which people often think of as the tree's flowers. They are every bit as photogenic as flowers, but are developing leaves.

Birds of course are found throughout, especially during migration or the nesting season. Male Scarlet Tanagers are always a crowd pleaser...

... and there are a few pairs of Pileated Woodpeckers. I had aimed my camera at the nest cavity, hoping to get a photo of one of the adults going in, when all of a sudden the other adult came swooping out and appeared to be diving right at me. It wasn't but I was quite pleased with being ready for this shot.

There are a few Michigan Lilies growing in this section of the forest, and here I captured an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail sipping some nectar.

Fungi are just as important as so many other elements of the forest, and here is a vivid example of one known as Chicken of the Woods.

Throughout the forest are long stretches of wetland forest known as sloughs. Their appearance can vary considerably. This first one shows a slough along Bennett Ave in May, when it has a fair amount of water and a lush green background.

This next one was taken from the exact same place, although it was on a misty day in November when the slough was dry and there were no leaves on anything, other than the ground.

This next photo is a fairly typical slough....

...and sometimes you can see an American Mink out looking for something.....

...or a Prothonotary Warbler looking for aquatic insects to feed on.

Prothonotary Warblers were first found nesting in Canada at Rondeau back in 1929. Rondeau has been considered the stronghold for the species ever since, although their Ontario range has expanded a fair bit.

Silver Maples thrive in sloughs. On occasion when one topples over, and its roots are still connected to the water, a new branch will grow, and become the next mature tree. This next photo shows a toppled over maple, with two developing new trunks.

The marsh on the western side of the park is a wonderful place to explore. One regularly sees an adult Bald Eagle flying overhead.

View from the former observation tower

One time when I was out kayaking, I managed to get so close to a basking Map Turtle that I had to back off, as it was too close for the camera to focus on!

There is always something to see and be inspired about!

Harrison Trail on a misty November Day

Shoreline action, which can take place anywhere along the lake side.

Being the Christmas season, one of my favourite Christmas songs was originally written as a poem by the well-known American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It was in the 1860s during the Civil War, a.k.a. The War Between the States. It was a stressful time for most Americans, and for Longfellow even more so, as he had just recently lost his wife in a fire, and his son was dealing with significant injuries from the war. Due to the loss of my wife Marie, earlier this year, I think this poem made into a song is even more meaningful to me. The song is called “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”. One of the best known artists singing this Christmas Carol is the group known as Casting Crowns, and you can hear it via  this link.  The comments that follow below the video are meaningful as well.

In listening to the news and other forms of publicly accessible information especially in these last few years, there certainly is not much peace on earth. But there is hope!

Blessings to all this Christmas season, as we celebrate the birth of God’s Son, and into 2025. And a heartfelt thank-you to family and friends reaching out to me during this very atypical Christmas!

 

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