Spring Flowering Orchids in the Appalachians

orchids in the Southern Appalachians...
spring-flowering pink and yellow lady's slippers...
numerous orchid species flower in the area, beginning in early springthrough late fall. Summer seems to be the heyday for some of the lesserknown... varieties...
The.. magenta flowers of grass pink, Calopogon tuberosus, first appear inlate spring, but the plants continue blooming well into summer. The commonname refers to the grass-like leaves... "calopogon" means "beautifulbeard"... referring to the yellow bristles on the end of the flower lip,and "tuberosus" describes the... structure on the roots...
Unlike most orchids, the lip is located at the top of the bloom. Itcontains yellow hairs (beard) which attract the pollinator. When apollinator, such as a bee, of sufficient weight lands on the lip, thishinged structure drops down, bringing the bee into contact with thepollen-bearing structures resulting in pollen exchange. Grass pink growsprimarily along the coastal plain, but also occurs in and around themountains.
A close relative, pale grass pink, Calopogon pallidus, is restricted mainlyto the coastal plain.
Rosebud orchid, Cleistes divaricata, was given the generic name meaning"closed" because the tube-like flower is open only on one end. Anothercommon name, spreading pogonia, refers to the bronze-coloredupward-reaching sepals.Two white or pale-pink upper petals sit atop a third protruding lip-petalwhich is decorated in dark pink with deep purple veining.
... Rosebuds grow in the mountains and coastal plain. There is muchscientific debate over distinct speciation between inhabitants of the tworegions...
Mid-summer is the realm of Platanthera. This... genera... is represented bymore than a dozen species in North Carolina, and this number increases whencounting the frequent [natural] hybrids. The group is often referred to asfringed orchids because several members have finely divided (fringed)margins around the lower lip.
... some members lacking this trait are called fringeless. Traits in commoninclude a fused elongated spur protruding from the rear of the lower petalor lip, large anthers which resulted in the scientific name "platanthera"from Greek words meaning "wide anther" and the characteristic floweringarrangement, consisting of a cluster of many small flowers... a raceme.
... the blooms of various species of platanthera present vivid colors,ranging from pure white to cream to green to purple to yellow to orange...
Pollination... by long-tongued butterflies and moths which are able toreach the nectary in the back of the spur....in his book Native Orchids of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, StanleyL. Bentley describes in detail 52 species from the... region"
URL :
http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20070723/NEWS/70723003/1031/FEATURES/NEWS/Southern_Appalachians_home_to_numerous_orchid_species