Category Archives: Wild Flowers

More missed opportunities

Wild Flowers, Wild flowers of Manitoba

Blue Flag Iris–always beautiful.

Wild Rose

 

 

Cut-leaved anemone

 

 

Pincushion Cactus

 

The flowers I most hated not to see were Manitoba’s cactus.  Many people don’t realize we have cactuses in Manitoba and in my opinion they are every bit as beautiful as those in Arizona, just smaller and less common. They are of course very rare here. In fact one has to ask, “Why here?”

Manitoba’s cactuses are  amazingly resilient plants. Obviously built of sturdy stuff. They must be to survive here. Just like the people.

 

 

 

Fortunately it has not sunk in yet how many others I missed. I guess it is time to move on.

Missed Opportunities

Orchids of Manitoba, Wild Flowers, Wild flowers of Manitoba

 

Showy Ladies’-slipper (Platanthera reginae)

I paid a heavy price for my recent trip to Iceland. I was gone from Manitoba for the last 2 weeks of June, probably  the best time for Manitoba wild flowers. As a result I missed some wonderful flowers so I will show some shots from my archives.

Grass Pink Orchid  (Calopogon tuberosus)

 

 

Rose Pogonia (Polonia ophioglossoides)

These are some of my favourite Manitoba Orchids. What a pity.

Woodridge Bog

Orchids of Manitoba, Wild Flowers, Wild flowers of Manitoba

 

After spending a couple of hours here it was time to leave. Actually I did not give it enough time, but today, as I said, I could not mosey along as I like to do. I drove out to the Woodridge Bog. Again conditions were windy and sunny–far from ideal. But you gotta dance with the girl you brung.

 

I was soon rewarded with one of my favorite flowers–Low Prairie Rose. That is one of my favourite Manitoba wild flowers. I love that flower!  It was very dry so I sprinkled a little water on some of the blossoms. I find a little rain (either natural or store bought) helps bring out the colours of this gentle gem of a flower. I do not consider that cheating. Do you?

Other flowers I saw here included Spreading Dogbane, Harebell, Showy Lady’s-slippers and Small round-leaved orchid but sadly past their prime.

Small round-leaved orchid

 

Showy Lady’s-slipper

The Showy Lady’s-slipper is  perhaps one of Manitoba’s most spectacular orchids but most of them were mostly spent. I found a few worth photographing.

Showy Lady’s-slipper

This is the price I paid for going to Iceland. It was a high price. I did find some gorgeous clumps and made a mental note to return next year, but you know mental notes are worth the paper they are not written on. I did later find one nice showy as a result of diligence and persistence. Righteous living was rewarded. For once!

Old Man nearly Dies of Heat Exhaustion but survives to celebrate whats right with the world

Family, Orchids of Manitoba, Wild Flowers,

 

 

I took this photograph of an orchid yesterday and it is already one my favourite orchid images  ever. It is Dragon’s Mouth (Arethusa bulbosa) the star of the Brokenhead Wetland Ecological Reserve.        

Yesterday, after I found the Moccasin-flower, that I blogged about, I moved to the Brokenhead Wetlands Ecological Reserve, one of my favorite places in the world. Today it was resplendent.

I met people in the parking lot who assured me there were not mosquitoes in the bog. That was a relief for it allowed me to remove my leggings. It was 31ºC and humid (as bogs always are) so I did not relish continuing in the heat with long pants.  Had I not removed them I feared that tomorrow there might be a headline in the Winnipeg Free Press“Old man dies of heat exhaustion in bog.” Or perhaps “Crazy old man…”

At the edge of the fen I spotted a wonderful Dragon’s Mouth(Arethusa bulbosa) orchid, the star of the show. This was the headliner and for good reason. It is a wonderful flower clad in magnificent pink. This is certainly one of my favorite orchids.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the number of cars in the parking lot and number of people I met along the trail. The trail is obviously being well used and everyone I talked to loved the area.   Even the children were interested in the bog. I noticed they spent a lot of time there, often lying on the boardwalk peering down into the bog.

 

I was surprised to see Small Round-leaved Orchid (Galearis rotundifolia) as it is now called. It looked like the flowers had just recently emerged. I tried to get a photograph but it was very difficult to do that from the boardwalk. What a pity. My photographs were not very good, but it was the best I could do.

 

This is the smallest of Manitoba’s Lady’s-slippers. A mosquito looks like a giant on it. This is the very rare Ram’s head Lady’s-slipper .  Last year members of the North American Orchid Conference group of which I am a member came here for their annual conference and seeing this was high on the agenda of most attendees.

Today was a strange day. It was extremely hot. So hot I actually stopped photographing Arethusa bulbosa before I really exhausted the Stead site. That is a sin. But I was just plain tired. Added to that, it was windy and I had a lot of trouble getting the right focus.  My recent cataract surgery did not help. Partly that is because my “improved” eye is so much better that my glasses subscription is wrong and that eye is still blurry.  So I had to reject a lot of images. Yet I also captured some  images that pleased me a lot! I am confused, but very happy with the “keepers” I got. It was a great day in the hot bog.

Thus ended one of my finest days in the bog ever. Despite my cataracts, the wind, and excess sun I did my best to capture some images. Today I was able to celebrate what’s right with the world as the photographer DeWitt Jones always recommends. It was all good.

Moccasin-flower

Nature, Orchids of Manitoba, Wild Flowers, Wild flowers of Manitoba,

 

Today I went in search of more orchids. I started out at Belair Provincial Forest. The orchids I was looking for reside in dry pine forests, unlike most other Manitoba orchids. It was extremely hot today. In fact it was so hot even the mosquitos did not venture out. Only mad dogs and orchid nuts go out in the mid day sun.

I found what I was looking for.  Moccasin-flower or Pink Lady’s-slipper as it is sometimes called. I don’t really think they look pink. More maroon I would say.

The name for orchids is derived from the Greek word ὄρχις (orchis)which means testicle. Looking at the moccasin flower you might think you knew why. But you would be wrong.  The name actually was used in reference to the underground tuberoids of orchis that are supposed to resemble testicles.

Orchids created by adultery (sort of)

Orchids of Manitoba, Wild Flowers, Wild flowers of Manitoba,

 

Sometimes the orchid world reveals sins. Those sins include deception, trickery or adultery.  Previously I have shown you Small White Lady’s Slipper and Large or Small Yellow Lady’s Slippers.  The Whites are very rare. But there is something even more rare hybrids between the Whties and the Yellows. These are created by adulterous relations between 2 different species that have produced offspring.

 

The offspring are called Cypripedium Xandrewsii.   Last year I had the fortune to see these in Manitoba. You can see that their colour is sort of a creamy white from the different shades of the two parents.

Large-Yellow Lady’s-slippers

Orchids of Manitoba, Wild Flowers, Wild flowers of Manitoba

 

With an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 species, depending on how you count, the Orchid Family (Orchidaceae) is one of the largest flowering-plant families. Found on all continents except Antarctica, orchids inhabit a wide range of environments, from the mountains to prairies, from bogs to fairly dry pine forests,  and from the arctic to tropical forests. They also vary from spectacularly gorgeous flowers (some of which I hope to show you) to plain Jane “little green jobs” (which I also hope to show you).

I went to two of those habitats today. One was boggy areas right beside the road. I went to one of my favorite bogs near Woodridge, not far from home, and did not have to go in. The orchids I was looking for were in the ditch right beside the road and I spotted them from the car as I drove. That was easy because the the Yellow lady’s-slipper is the largest of Manitoba’s lady’s-slippers.  Manitoba has a surprising 37 species of orchids with 2 separate varieties. As well there are 3 hybrids.

What is an orchid? A characteristic feature of the orchid flower is the lip or labellum that is actually a modified petal. It serves as helipad for flying insects.  The lip is usually different from the other 2 petals in shape, size, coloring, and markings. So it has 3 sepals and 3 petals.

Of course crime is common among orchids and not just orchid lovers. Most flowers and most orchids rely on cross-pollination for reproduction and the most common instrument for this are the insects. Usually they attract the insects by color and scent and then reward them for showing up to pick up pollen and deliver it to other individuals, but the lady’s-slippers are tricky. They don’t give up any nectar as a reward so really they cheat the insects.

 

This is the early stage of the Large Yellow-Lady’s-slipper.

A lot of people don’t realize that Lady’s-slippers are orchids.  We actually have 6 different types in Manitoba. In the lady’s-slippers  family (Cypripedium), the lip is conspicuous and resembles  a pouch.  The pouch is formed when 2 lateral sepals fuse to form a flower prominently formed as a pouch. Usually, the two lateral sepals located at the bottom of the flower are fused to form a single sepal.

 

This is the very early stage of the Large Yellow-Ladys-slipper when only green is visible.

In 1995, the World Wildlife Fund rated lady’s-slippers as among the 10 most wanted plants 
or animals threatened by illegal and unsustainable trade. I have seen many holes representing captured flowers. That is always a pity, as I strongly believe the plants should be left in the wild to preserve their genetic diversity of the plants and also to leave them for others to enjoy. Partly because of digging by humans the numbers of orchids in the wild in Manitoba have seriously declined. I belong to an organization called Native Orchid Conservation Inc. which is trying to preserve orchids and other wild flowers.

Because lady’s-slippers are different from most other orchids, some botanists have been arguing that they should be excluded from the family of orchids. This would be a monstrous crime and  would warrant revolution! We have 6 types of lady’s-slippers in Manitoba. Today I saw two. One was the Large Yellow Lady’s-slipper(Cypripedium parviflorumSalisbury var. pubescens). This is the most common form of lady’s-slipper in Manitoba.

 

 

Calypso

Orchids of Manitoba, Wild Flowers, Wild flowers of Manitoba, ,

 

Today I made my third attempt to locate and photograph the lovely native orchid—Calypso or Fairy-slipper. Finally it made its appearance. It was the first orchid of the year. Twice before I drove all the way to the Sandilands only to be disappointed. There was no disappointment today.  as a result, there was rejoicing at the Neufeld residence, sort of like the rejoicing in heaven when the prodigal son returned.

This is a tiny but lovely orchid. Perhaps the most lovely.  I really cannot say which is my favorite orchid. Asking me what my favorite orchid is would be like asking me who is my favorite son or favorite grandchild. But this one is certainly in the running.

One unusual thing about this orchid is that it has only one leaf and that appears at the base in the autumn. It remains green all winter long on the ground at the base of the flower underneath the snow. What is up with that?

The Desert in Bloom

Nature, Wild Flowers, Wild Flowers of Southwest USA,

Through the wonders of irrigation, even in a year of drought, like this one, the desert can bloom. At the Desert Museum in Tucson, one of my favourite places, , that has been shown.

 

 

Flowers can bloom in the desert if they are given a boost of water.

 

The Museum is different from most. Almost everything in it is found outdoors. It is located right next to Saguaro National Park, dedicated to the Saguaro cactus found only in the Sonoran Desert.

The Century Plant is highly unusual, but beautiful in its own way.

In fact with care the desert can even bloom Hoepners. Of course it can’t make Don smile. That would be asking for too much.