Tom and I decided we would go to Cedar Bog which is really a Fen. More about that on another blog. We knew that we had seen Showy Lady Slippers there years ago. When friends came to visit and were agreeable to visiting the bog, we headed up toward Urbana, Ohio. The bog is close by. The Showy Lady Slippers (Cypripedium reginae) were past their prime. This is the freshest one we found.
According to the Cedar Bog website, Showy Lady Slippers may take up to 15 years to mature and produce their first flower. Some people get a poison-ivy-like rash from touching the hairs on the stems. A volunteer at the visitors' center told us where to find two other types of blooming orchids. The first one we found was a Grass Pink Orchid (Calopogon pulchellus) close to the boardwalk. It is listed as a Threatened species on the Cedar Bog wildflower list.
The third of the blooming orchids was the Small Purple Fringed Orchid (Platanthera psycodes). We saw two blooming plants. The flowers grow in dense-cylindrical racemes. We only had my little camera with us so this is the best photo we could get. The flowers were far off the trail. You can get a closer view by clicking on the photo but the individual flowers are somewhat blurred. This is an Endangered species.
We asked about the Yellow Lady Slippers because it was Connie's comment that started us thinking about Yellow Lady Slippers in Ohio, especially after my cousin, Lucille sent me a photo of some she had seen at Oak Openings, a Metro Park in the Toledo, Ohio area. Cedar Bog does have Yellow Lady Slippers but they bloom earlier. Tom and I have put Cedar Bog on our list of places to visit in Spring of 2013.
Hey you found some Orchids!!..did you make a note of when to look next year? If the weather is warm they don't last very long. That one Orchid is stunning! Someday I will have more time to poke around in other areas of Minnesota to find more Orchids..I hope:)
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