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Orchids
!
Orchids are my favorite wildflowers.
In their native habitat orchids
seem to be simultaneously everywhere yet nowhere to be found. For more than 10 years I regularly hiked within 20 feet
of a stand of over 200 Yellow Lady's Slipper plants without ever once realizing they were there. I have found Ladies Tresses growing as "weeds" in my backyard. Some orchids have a single large green leaf in the winter but only a flower stem
in the summer with no trace of the leaf. Orchid flowers are sometimes smaller than your little fingernail but are
spectacularly beautiful and complex when viewed in a close-up photo on the computer screen.
Tennessee is blessed with nearly
50 species of orchids--2nd only to North Carolina as the state with the most orchid species outside of sub-tropical Florida.
Add in the rest of the U.S. and Canada (excepting Florida) and the count goes up to about 150 species. Amazing.
There are at least 25 or 30 species of orchids in Tennessee alone I've yet to find in the wild. Can
you imagine over 23,000 species worldwide?
Please do not dig native orchids or buy "wild" orchids (including
those sold in nurseries). Native orchids will not live outside their native habitat more than one year.
They will not grow from seed outside of their native habitat and nurseries that profess to have cultivated them from
wild stock are most likely lying. There is a lucrative black market for orchids. We hear reports of people
paying hundreds of dollars for a single plant such as a Yellow Lady's Slipper. We will not share the exact locations of those "rare orchids" even with close friends because of the
risk of a "digger" finding out about them.
Enjoy orchids where you find them. Finding them in
bloom is often such an adventure that it becomes the primary reason we choose to hike in specific locations during certain
times of the year. One location requring a 12 mile hike was visited by us many times over the course of four years before
we found the Southern (small) Yellow Lady's Slippers in bloom. We didn't even know they were going to be the small ones until we found them blooming!
Browse my Orchids ! photo gallery and enjoy the beauty of these flowers.
Note the date of the photographs and be on the look-out for similar plants when you hike during those time periods.
In the Smokies we continue to find these orchids almost everywhere. It is simply a matter of looking for them during
the time they are in flower. Everyone should be able to find a Pink Lady's Slipper (but can you find a white version?).
Showy Orchis are widespread also. Purple Fringed and Yellow Fringed Orchids are roadside along upper elevation drives
but you'll miss them if you drive too fast. You've probably walked right past those beautiful Spreading Pogonias (Rosebud
Orchids) without "seeing" them. Slow down. Look closely. See the beauty of an orchid that has been hidden
in plain view.
Below are quick links to various species of orchids
in my photo gallery. You can jump around or just start with the first one and stay in the gallery until the end (85
photos total).
In addition to listings you find in most wildflower ID books, another excellent book on orchids
is Stanley L. Bentley's Native Orchids of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. It includes charts showing counties of occurence and flowering dates. Knox Library has a copy for loan.
