Orchids, Carnivorous Plants, and Ring Tone Thrushes

Ok, this may not  be a flowering orchid in Illinois, but we're getting closer.  If you didn't read last blogpost,(and I highly encourage that you do, link here) this orchid was found during a visit to Pinhook Bog in northern Indiana.  The species is Grass Pink (Calopogon tuberosus), one of eastern North America's more common orchids, albeit still rare in the Midwest.  Still, Indiana has more species of orchids than Hawaii, so finding this orchid isn't a particularly great achievement.

But it's an orchid!

Here's both size and location, in comparison to my shoe.  I'm very concerned someone on one of these hikes is going to pick this plant, and as it's the sole member of its species I saw on that trip, it's quite a concern.  Orchids don't like to be picked. Also, note the reddish growths near the flower.

Those would be Roundleaf Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia), one of the few carnivorous plants found in the Midwest.  As a matter of fact, almost all Midwestern carnivorus plants come from bogs.  There's a reason for that, and I'll get to it in a minute.  In order to get nutrients, these plants produce sticky nectar from hairs on their leaves, visible as droplets.  Insects get stuck in the nectar, and the leave curls around the insect slowly, before digesting it.

Growing nearby were many Northern Pitcher Plants (Sarracenia purpurea), another carnivorous species. In these, the insects just fall straight down into the pitchers, and are unable to get back up thanks to downward-pointing hairs, visible above on the edge of the leaf.  Sometimes, larger insects, such as bees, are able to chew their way out of the pitcher, and you can see that above as well.

The pitcher plants were in flower, and  their strange burgundy flowers could be seen sticking up all over the sunnier expanses of the bog.

Here you can see more pitcher plants, as well as the flowers, in greater detail.  Top to bottom, these are bizarre plants.  Part of the reason this bog has two sets of gates around it is due to the fact that these plants are dug up in the wild and sold to gardeners as a curiosity.  The same endangering collection happens to the orchids and sundews shown earlier, and it is a severe threat.

Almost the entire ground in certain sunnier patches was covered in sundews.  These are a different species, Spoonleaf Sundew (Drosera intermedia), which is a bit larger with less rounded leaves.

Here's a better look at one of the Spoonleaf Sundews.  They do rather look like spoons, though red, covered with hairs and sticky droplets, and lined up in a circle.  On second thought, maybe not.

We approached a hole in the bog, where water seeps up.  Note the dark color of the water. That is due to the fact that nothing leaves this bog.  As a result, tannins and other chemicals from dead leaves, peat, etc. make the bog constantly acidic (an average of 4-5 PH).  This has several curious effects, including a lack of decomposing fungi.  As a result, things like dead bodies have been preserved very well in bogs, as well as foodstuffs like butter and cheese.  The high PH, however, makes it difficult for plants to grow.  As a result, orchids grow here, thanks to the lack of competition and lower (but still extant) amount of soil fungi.  Carnivorus plants also grow here, getting their nutrients from insects and microorganisms instead of  from the soil.
As a matter of fact, the pond above is filled with a carnivorous plant called bladderwort (Utricularia spp.), which uses the aforesaid bladders, actually tiny vacuum traps, to suck microorganisms out of the water to feed on.  Living here would be a nightmare for most insects.

Here's a good view of one edge of the pond, with a single Pitcher Plant in the middle.

Far in the back of the pond, another species of orchid bloomed, the Rose Pogonia (Pogonia ophioglossoides).  In birding, there are what is known as nemesis birds.  These are birds that logically, you should be able to find, but somehow you always keep missing them.  The Rose Pogonia, for me, is a nemesis plant.  I've been to several areas where it is supposed to grow, only to be too early or late for the plant when I go.  Now, it was twenty feet away, but I couldn't get a good photo of this plant, which I want.  I'll call this a near miss.  Until next year, Pogonia.

Another new plant for me is this, the Bog Yellow-eyed Grass (Xyris difformis).  The vast majority of its relatives live in the coastal swamps of the Southeast.  The shrub in the picture above is something in the Heath family, but I don't know what it is in particular.  Heaths are very common in bogs, as they love the acidic soils.

Alongside the heaths came this Pink Lady's Slipper Orchid (Cypripedium acaule), a species I mentioned on the last post, but which I have always wanted to see in flower.  Still, these all seem as if they've made seedpods.  The dead bits are probably as close to a flower as I'm going to see this year.

The rangers have this photo of the flowers, but it's just not the same.

All around us in the bog, highbush Blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) bore their fruit, free for the taking.

Under the blueberry bushes, almost noting grew, only a few saplings, bits of moss, and a few orchids.

The boardwalk ended in a meadow near another pool in the bog.  Eastern White Pine (Pinus strobus) grew here, yet another reminder that this bog is a chunk of displaced Canada in its ecology.

Along the edge of the pool, Yellow Pond Lily (Nuphar advena) grew  Spatterdock is another name for this species, a plant which I rarely see.  This is my first time seeing it in flower.

Yet another carnivorus plant was visible from the end of the boardwalk.  Horned Bladderwort (Utricularia cornuta), a terrestrial (land-growing) species of bladderwort, bloomed in the open field.

Growing with the bladderworts and sundews was a rare clubmoss (Lycopodiella inundata), yet another northern species growing in this bog.  Also, deer tracks.

Here's a close up of the sphagnum moss itself, which lay everywhere in the bog.  It is the dead form of this moss that is used as peat.  Peat itself is burned as fuel and as a soil ingredient in gardening.  Many bogs have been dug up in Canada to mine the peat underneath.  However, this far south, this bog will likely remain as a natural curiosity for Midwesterners to treasure.

We walked back out into the outer layer of ferns.  So far, I'd seen four species of orchids, a clubmoss, five species of carnivorous plants, and many rare and endangered plants.  It was at this point that some bird began to sound like a cell phone ringing.  Yet another displaced Canadian, the Veery Thrush, sang from the bushes around us, and it's call sounds like a ring tone.  I'm not exaggerating.  Here's a link to a clip of the calls.  The Veery got its name from that sound.  They hid in the bushes all around us, invisible ring tones sounding everywhere.  I never saw one.

I have to say, if you're interested in the unusual or the rare, an excursion to Pinhook Bog is in order.  Just make sure it's a Saturday from 12-3, or else you won't see much of the bog besides two locked gates.  Call ahead to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore if you want to check, in fact.

If you're one of my regular readers, who is quite comfortable to let me do the legwork, then Happy Independence Day!

If you're from Germany, the #1 non-U.S. country who reads my blog, then Guten Tag!