Went to HD yesterday to go see Kentucky’s last remaining highland rim wet barren which lies on top of a vestige of old growth swamp white oak- beech-hickory and is a classic seasonal depression fen with strange peaks of acidity and alkalinity that are out of this world. The forest surrounding this meadow like opening is densely shaded and highly acidic upland forest that sits on a sandy shale layer in Rock Castle Co. The orchid diversity in this area is notable to say the least. With the putty roots and tway blades finishing up, this species stands idle through the warmer seasons, starting in June in some cases. This photo was taken a few days ago and I couldn’t help myself to some of the natural lighting.
Tipularia discolor, or the Ragged Cranefly Orchid, is a classic winter green orchid known from the eastern and mid western portions of North America. It is fairly common bumping into these through out any hike in decent to high quality rich woodlands. Whenever you see a long nectar spur on the flower you should be able to correlate it to something with a long tongue, in this example moths are the culprit for being a pollinia transport. When the sun goes down, this orchid produces a faint smell and lures in moths. These moths are fairly small in comparison to something like a Hawkmoth, and its easy to see how the orchids have evolved to give smaller species enough room to have access to the nectar spur. The nectar in these spurs is produced near the terminal tip of the spur forcing the moths to move their proboscis farther down the tube and position themselves to touch the column’s stigmatic surface with their compound eyes. Once they have antiquity had their fill or reduced the nectar in the nectary at the back of the spur they fly off backwards in the direction of the translator latch, a notched/hooked part at the tip of the column, which is directly connected to the viscidium(Orchidaceae), a corpusculum type structure(Apocynaceae) that sticks to the pollinator and is attached to the Pollinium by translator arms; when this gland like translator component is removed the anther cap pops off and the pollinia are dragged with it. In this case, the moths of question can be a few wolf moths, small looper moths, porcelain gray, and a few small true army worm moths. The translator appendage, in it’s entirety, is stuck to the eye of the moth and will be removed only by forcing it into a stigmatic surface of a different flower.
In my next few sets of legitimate posts I’de like to address a few other of the august orchids associated with nectar spurs and their unique pollinator symptoms.
