Late Orchids and other rare to endangered species

 As promised in my previous post, this one will focus primarily on orchids, some of them quite rare, that occur in the August/September time frame.

As is featured in the current header, Nodding Pogonia (Triphora trianthophoros) is one of the rarest in Canada. While I have seen it in flower in very late July and as late as mid-September, typically about the third week in August is when it is at its peak.The following photos of this orchid were taken on August 25. It is legally Endangered, as the only known location for it in Canada is at Rondeau Provincial Park.

 It is very small, as you can probably tell from the first photo. They rarely exceed 12 cm in total height.

The flowers, all of which are developed to a certain point, will open simultaneously for a single day, can be slightly more than 1 cm in height. Singles are the norm, and it is always nice to see them with lots of magenta.

Doubles on the same flower seem to be plentiful at times.....

....while three flowers on the same plant, open all at the same time, is more unusual. In checking on this rare orchid annually since the early 1970s, I don't see a triple flowered one every year.

As tiny as Nodding Pogonia is, here is one that is even less conspicuous. It is Autumn Coralroot (Corallorhiza odontorhiza) and is also quite rare, although not as rare as the first one. It is a bit taller on average, but the flowers are much less showy. There are two varieties of this orchid. The one shown here is var. pringlei, and this is the 'open-flowered' variety. Even though the drooping flowers are open, the seed capsules are already well-developed. The form with flowers that never really open is even less obvious. In both cases, self-pollination occurs. To give you an idea of how small this is, it was taken with a 100mm macro lens plus 68mm of extension tubes, and then cropped some more.

Sticking with orchids a bit longer, there is an interesting group of them in the Ladies'-tresses genus, and some can be challenging to tell apart. A previous post featured the most common one at this time of year, the Sphinx Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes incurva). I photographed it at Rondeau a few weeks ago. While looking for an endangered gentian in eastern Chatham-Kent, I photographed this same species.

Its flowers are almost entirely white, with little or no fragrance. The brownish spots appearing are an indication that it is past its best. It was photographed on Sept 1, and normally would have been in its peak condition around the third week of August

It has small leaves at the base.

A similar looking one is this next one: Southern Slender Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes lacera var. gracilis). It is quite dainty, and not easily seen amongst the fairly dense prairie vegetation.

A closer look reveals one of the key characteristics of its spiral flowers: the distinctly green centres of each flower.

Sometimes the spiraling of the flowers takes on a slightly different look with a more drawn out spiral.

It is an extremely rare species, with only this one population showing up in the iNaturalist database. There are older records that I am aware of, but they have not been seen for several decades, primarily due to a change in the overall vegetation.

I have been out to check on another extremely rare orchid of this group: Yellow Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes ochroleuca), but it was not visible on this date. It occurs on a normally fairly dry sandy site, and it is possible that the extremely dry late June through early August period may be the reason it hasn't appeared. Or maybe I was a few days too early, so I will be out checking for it again soon.

Another one in that genus, while considered rare in Ontario but is relatively common at Rondeau, is Great Plain's Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum). It is a bit early for it at the moment, but should be showing up in the next week. It is a more robust looking species, with a slightly creamy centre as well as a spicy vanilla scent, and no basal leaves. It grows in grassy areas.

Not an orchid, but an Endangered gentian, is the White Prairie Gentian (Gentiana alba). It grows in the same vicinity as the Southern Slender Ladies'-tresses, and so I combined the time out to photograph them both. There are three sub-populations of this gentian, and at the moment, are the only ones known for Canada. Key characteristics are the creamy white flowers, most of which are fairly closed but not always tightly closed. The flowers also have slight ridges, typically with greenish lines. The plant grows best in high quality tallgrass prairie/savanna vegetation communities.

They can sometimes be confused with another gentian, commonly known as Bottle Gentian (Gentiana andrewsii), which is fairly widespread in a broader vegetation community. Normally they are quite a deep blue, but on occasion they can be white. Such was the case where I was investigating a reported occurrence of the White Prairie Gentian (WPG) in eastern Chatham-Kent. We didn't find any WPG, but did see this white colour form of the Bottle Gentian. The flowers are more tightly closed, and doesn't have the more obvious ridges with greenish edges.

Just to add a little non-botanical information to this post, while I was in eastern Chatham-Kent on the hunt for some of the species above, I stopped by a couple of spots along the Thames River to look for some rare, and very rare, damselflies. The first one is much more common than the second species: American Rubyspot. It has a partially reddish area near the base of the wings, and their abdomen shows definitive brighter rings. They don't always sit in an ideal place to photograph them, but when they do, the patience required is worth it. In Ontario, it is found in many scattered locations west of the Toronto to Barrie area.

Much rarer is the Smoky Rubyspot, next, which shows a bit of red near the base of the wings, and a smoky tip of the wings. Also the abdomen is only faintly ringed, if at all. In Ontario and Canada, it is found primarily along the Sydenham River, the lower reaches of the Thames River and in a couple of places along the Ausable River.

I also managed to check on a couple of rare plants I knew about in the area, both of which are ranked as Endangered. The first one is Eastern Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida), and while it is not in flower now, it is still quite distinctive. It has a small cluster of red berries.....

...and the large buds of next year's flowers are quite prominent.

In the same general area is a remnant of a population of Eastern Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia cespitosa), also Endangered. It was once part of a large population that was widespread across a sandy hillside back in the 1940s, according to a former co-worker of mine who lived across from the site. But eventually the hillside was converted to agriculture, and only a small remnant persists along the roadside.

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Late season orchids, shorebirds, etc

I'll take a short break from all the mothing posts, although be warned...there is more to come! But I haven't abandoned some of the other interesting elements of the season.

Actually while I was out getting ready for an evening with moths recently, I had about a dozen Common Nighthawks swooping back and forth not far away, but generally heading south while presumably hoping for a snack along the way.

 Shorebirds have been fairly predictable so far in the area, and that isn't likely to change too much in the next few weeks, but who knows?

Pectoral Sandpiper

 Lake McLean at Keith McLean Conservation Lands continues to be attractive to shorebirds. Probably the best shorebirds in recent days have been as many as 5 Long-billed Dowitchers. I've only stopped a couple of times and did not catch up with any of that species. But their shorter billed relatives have been there, along with a Stilt Sandpiper or two.

Short-billed---Stilt---Short-billed

 This next photo shows a nice comparison between the larger, stockier and longer billed Short-billed Dowitcher and the smaller, more slender and shorter billed Stilt Sandpiper.

Orchids have a fascination all of their own, but most people don't realize how many native orchids there are in Ontario. Even at Rondeau, there are 18 species of native orchid growing there. One of the most abundant orchids at Rondeau and similar habitats this late in the season is the Great Plains Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes magnicamporum). It is fairly large for a Spiranthes, with fairly large flowers which smell a bit like vanilla to some, or a bit like hot plastic to others. Most Spiranthes don't have any fragrance at all, but this species does. I measured an individual at Rondeau the other day, and even though it was not completely in full flower it measured just over 40 cm tall (16").

The rows of individual flowers may be fairly straight, as in this next photo....

 ...or they may be somewhat spiralling, as in this next one.

 Regardless, the individual flowers have a fairly long lower lip, with slightly yellowish centres.

Recently I went out to a spot with a couple of friends, to look at another, smaller, Spiranthes. It is quite rare in Ontario. It is Yellow Ladies-tresses (Spiranthes ochroleuca). The individual flowers are shorter and more hump backed than the previous species, and their lip isn't quite as long, although it, too, has a slightly yellowish centre.

While we were out looking at this Spiranthes, we came across a peculiar growth form of another, and not just of one individual, but of at least 14 individuals in a scattered group.

We initially thought it might be a different species altogether such as one of the really rare, small flowered ones. However after sending the photos to a Spiranthes specialist at the New York Botanical Garden, who did his Ph. D. on revising the Spiranthes cernua group, the explanation goes something like this: at some point in ancient history, a subspecies of Spiranthes cernua hybridized with Spiranthes magnicamporum somewhere in the Great Lakes region. As a result, the progeny of that hybrid is often apomictic, which means it doesn't need to cross-pollinate but can produce viable seeds through self-pollination. The result is that such small, closed flowers are not all that uncommon, and since it continues to produce viable seed through self-pollination, the entire group of 14 or so that we saw is of this growth form. This species has been named Spiranthes incurva.

Another fairly uncommon orchid is this next one: Autumn Coralroot (Corallorhiza odontorhiza). It is small, barely 15 cm tall, and the flowers often droop or don't even open, so this is about as showy as it gets. It used to be considered quite rare in Ontario, but that is mainly because it is so hard to find, even when you know where it is. It typically occurs in forested areas, so the dappled light on the forest floor makes it even more difficult to see.

I was recently out at a high quality savanna in Lambton County, where one of the only three known populations in Canada of White Prairie Gentian occurs.

 Many readers are likely familiar with the Closed or Bottle Gentian, shown next.

 On occasion, a white colour form of Bottle Gentian occurs, which can really get one's attention, hoping for it to be the endangered White Prairie Gentian. However even though this white colour form of Bottle Gentian is uncommon, an easy way to tell the difference is that Bottle Gentian has little fringes at the tip of its petals whereas White Prairie Gentian is not fringed. What makes things a bit more challenging is that both species occur at one of the 3 sites of White Prairie Gentian, leading to some interesting hybrid colour forms, so checking the flower tips is critical to determine which species it really is.

There is, however, a species of blue gentian with very obvious fringes, as shown below. This is called, appropriately, Fringed Gentian. While I photographed this individual on a cloudy day, the petals weren't as open as they would be on a bright sunny day.

On one of the sunnier days I was out at Rondeau, I decided to look along the east beach for some regular, but seldom seen, occupants. It is the Hairy-necked Tiger Beetle. They were really quite common, but only if you were looking intently. I saw perhaps three dozen of them in less than 30 minutes, but they are difficult to approach, and you don't really see the hairy neck without close focusing binoculars, or a good telephoto camera lens and then look at them on the computer. If you click on this image, it should show up larger if you want to see them.

There are some late season wildflowers that are good for attracting late season butterflies and other things. New England Aster is popular, as are other aster and goldenrod species.

Blue-stemmed Goldenrod

 While photographing some butterflies at this patch of asters, I noticed something else. It was a moth, a day-flying one known as Corn Earworm. That is my token moth photo for this blog :-).

Viceroy

Painted Lady

 There are still quite a few Monarchs around, but diminishing as the days go by. I do have one in a chrysalis in my yard, but it is getting darker and will emerge in the next day or so.

 There is the occasional Peck's Skipper still around. I also saw a Common Buckeye a couple of days ago but since I only had my macro lens on the camera, was not able to get a photo of it.

 Goldenrods, if they are still in good flower, can be quite busy with insects. Wasps especially are searching out nectar. This final photo shows a wasp look-alike but is actually a long-horned beetle type known as a Locust Borer.