hooded ladies' tressesSpiranthes romanzoffiana
Orchidaceae
Now that we've been orchid hunting for the endangered Yadon's piperia at several locations, we seem to be spotting different orchids left and right. Please note, I use the word 'hunting' to reference 'looking,' not 'killing.' In my estimation our local native orchids are not terribly showy and are fairly small, i.e. little single-stem shoots that rarely reach 18 inches tall with no apparent leaves. I'm guessing I've hiked past Spiranthes before at Fort Ord and never paid much attention to them before now. It's an odd phenomena of human attention; you're oblivious to the fact you're oblivious. I've hiked with people who simply don't see butterflies... at all, even after I point them out. There's a Hymenoptera in the second pic, but I'm feeling a little lazy to sort through a search of "all black bee" right now.
ps 08/22/10 - For other Spiranthes, check out these posts from Blue Jay Barrens in OH and Orchids, Nature and My Outdoor Life in the UK.
ps 08/22/10 - For other Spiranthes, check out these posts from Blue Jay Barrens in OH and Orchids, Nature and My Outdoor Life in the UK.
4 comments:
Your right on about human observation skills. I trout fished carefully observing the streams for years never noticing little birds or butterflys. Then I took up birding three years ago and notice them everywhere. Orchis yes! I successfully raised our gorgeous state flower, the showy pink laddyslipper for years. :)
I'll have to check out your blog to see if you have any pics posted of the pink lady slipper. I've seen a pink and white one out in the wild while I still lived in Ohio.
Love your Hooded Ladies Tresses, it looks very similar to our Autumn Ladies Tresses which comes into flower at the end of August and through September. It's our latest flowering British but it's fairly rare and difficult to find owing to it's small size.
David, I added a bunch more orchid posts from the past few weeks - click on my 'orchids' label at the bottom of my posts to see them all. Hope you like. I'll keep an eye out for your upcoming post of autumn ladies tresses ; )
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