[somozasayre]

last week I went up onto the tug hill region east of lake ontario after work to a spot where there have been lots of native orchids. I was hoping to find some large shining ladies tresses, bog candles showy ladyslippers and maybe even some early broad-lipped twayblades. I was surprised that along much of the dirt road heading into the area called 'parkers' on the state maps there were large flowering plants of columbine. I'd heard one of my co-workers talking about going north with another co-worker to take pictures of blue columbine a week or more before this, so didn't think they would still be around. There were many plants with dark blue flowers, one plant I found of lighter purple flowers and a few plants with white to pinkish-white flowers, all which were very attractive. Many were getting slightly old though a few still looked fresh. I was also surprised to see that the showy ladyslippers were just starting to open up, which actually put them right on the normal schedule. the tug hill and surrounding area gets alot of snow because of the 'lake effect' of moisture coming off of the lakes and dumping on the land. this spot gets even more snow because of the rising elevation causes the cold air to lose it's moisture as the air pressure drops. I think the piles of snow protected the area from the higher temps that have caused lots of plants around to be at least two weeks earlier than normal


first clump of columbine I found driving down flat rock road (lots of rocks on this road, but oddly enough many of them are pretty round! and very large when it's been raining )


a 'roadside' view of the first clump, growing right out into the roadway


first white clump I saw


closeup, flowers a little spent


typical presentation growing right in the edge of the road


closeup of the blue flowers. I didn't see the mosquito when I took the picture; surprised it wasn't trying to attack me like all of it's brothers (these were all very quick pictures...)


a cleared spot where someone likely will build a hunting camp


closeup of one of the flowers (a little shaky). I don't remember the common name of these flowers, feel free to volunteer the name! indian paintbrush comes to mind, but don't think that's the name. I think the blue flowers are aquilegia vulgaris but don't know if the white and purple ones are a different variety or not. most likely they are escapes from farms that people tried to carve out of the wet areas. I think the so-called mini-ice age maybe in the 1800's where it was cold for much of the summer for a few years drove many farmers from marginal land all across central upstate ny. a lot of ny state land is from abandoned farms. luckily for those of us who like to find wildflowers, these state lands often are filled with them

there'll be more pictures in another post...

[somozasayre]

the rest of the pics! (if someone would like, I took several shots showing the whole ridge covered with wind turbines. would have to merge several pictures and would likely be feet long!)


flowers of indian cucumber root. if you are a native orchid hunter and are looking for isotria, you can confuse these plants/leaves for the orchid unless you've seen enough to tell them apart. the non-orchid has a solid, thin wiry stem and the large whorled pogonia has a thicker but hollow stem (which is dark purple). also the ind. cuc. root has a sort of fuzzy stem


a closeup of the plant that had purple rather than blue flowers


larger plant of white columbine growing in front of the farm that the orchid location caretaker uses on weekends and holidays as a camp


wind turbine behind one of the many hilltop swamps (huge)


a turbine either being constructed or repaired


a very small section of the region that is filled with I think nearly 300 wind turbines. I think you can barely see in the distance some of the foothills of the adirondack park mountains

[vNGiDaFX]

Excellent. glad to see some environmental pluses in these bad times. thanx for sharing.

[suidinguilelf]

Pretty columbines! I know the pain of sorting through fields of Medeola in search of Isotria. I remember clearly the first time I actually saw an Isotria - I couldn't believe my eyes! Certainly, that must be a cucumber root!

The composite is Pilosella aurantiaca, "the Devil's paintbrush", a plant of the widespread hawkweeds, Aster family.

[Henldyhl]

Gosh, those columbines are beautiful! The only ones I've ever seen are A. canadensis. Did you end up finding the orchids you had hoped to see?

[casinobonbiner]

Enjoyed your photos very much. I love this time of year for all the wild flowers, columbines, orchids and all. That orange one reminds me of Calendula, but I don't know if that's right.

[somozasayre]

hawkweed; I've heard that before, thanks! I found showy ladyslippers but most of them hadn't opened yet and there were just a few open. I was hoping to find some large shining ladies' tresses, but at first glance I found none but later looking very close to the ground I saw that there were some but they were tiny. there were bog candles in flower, lots of them but my bug spray has a limited half-life up there and it was wearing thin so I was on my way out! I didn't see any broad-lipped twayblades but plants were behind this year's schedule and there was standing water everywhere so I didn't go way back in where I normally would have found them (they wouldn't have been in flower anyways if I'd found plants)

[rXpX]

I have some of those purple columbines growing in my perennial bed. I think the "tame" ones reverted to their wild ancestors.

Wind turbines -- the look of the landscape in the future.

[Bletlemof]

It is irritating to see such turbins. HEre the installation is massive an almost no bird studies are taken into consideration. As a result several birds of prey have been sliced!! I hope this changes in the near future. Also the use of this particular type of wind turbines is kind of useless...!

Back to the plants!! Aquilegia are gorgeous!!! What is the first plant of the second post Charles? (I am asking for the genus... I cannot easily find the plants with common names... )

Here is an Aquilegia from Mt Olympus (if there is a problem I can remove it, charles just tell me...) at approx 2050m

[mvjvz]

i really like these wild flower pics! my favorites are the orange ones and that purple columbine

[somozasayre]

Hello Thanasis,
Not a problem, the flowers you posted are very nice. I don't know the genus of the flowers that aren't columbine

[Henldyhl]

The first plant in the second set of pics is Medeola virginiana

[somozasayre]

oh, I was thinking about the hawkweed. I think tom mentioned the medeola though I don't usually remember the genera of non-orchids

[Bletlemof]

Thank you for the info Charles and musiclovertony....