Uploads from BlueRidgeKitties, tagged purplefringedorchid, with geodata

Purple Fringed Orchids on Mount Mitchell

nobody@flickr.com (BlueRidgeKitties) — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 21:17:12 -0700

Nice grouping of these orchids along the access road to the summit. The one in the front seemed unusual with its lighter color while the ones in the background show the more typical purple. These orchids are reported to have some pink and rarely even white individuals.

Almost Done

nobody@flickr.com (BlueRidgeKitties) — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 13:33:01 -0700

BlueRidgeKitties posted a photo:

One of the last blooming Purple-Fringed Orchids (Platanthera psychodes) on Mount Mitchell. Most of the plants are almost done by now, very few buds left.

Purple-Fringed Orchid

nobody@flickr.com (BlueRidgeKitties) — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 13:33:00 -0700

BlueRidgeKitties posted a photo:

Platanthera psychodes still flowering nicely on Mount Mitchell. They are getting close to the end of their blooming period, but for those who care to look there are still some jewels to be found. This was another shot using fill flash and exposure compensation to deal with the bright direct sunlight.

Purple Fringed Orchid

nobody@flickr.com (BlueRidgeKitties) — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 21:17:14 -0700

BlueRidgeKitties posted a photo:

This one was just starting to open its flowers with the top of the inflorescence still mostly in buds. The purple contrasted very nicely with the green of the fir branches.

Purple Fringed Orchids

nobody@flickr.com (BlueRidgeKitties) — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 21:17:13 -0700

BlueRidgeKitties posted a photo:

Two less densely packed racemes of these orchids along the summit road on Mount Mitchell. They seemed to be popular with a great variety of insects. If you look closely, you can discover some of them between the individual flowers.

Orchids Galore

nobody@flickr.com (BlueRidgeKitties) — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 21:17:11 -0700

BlueRidgeKitties posted a photo:

The Purple Fringed Orchids are blooming on Mount Mitchell. All I could think when driving past this spot was "Wow!" I don't think I've ever seen this many of them in one spot. This was near the restaurant.

Platanthera psycodes

nobody@flickr.com (BlueRidgeKitties) — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 21:17:15 -0700

BlueRidgeKitties posted a photo:

This raceme shows the cylindrical shape typical for Platanthera psycodes very well and was densely packed with flowers. A little hover fly landed on top just as I was taking the picture.

Pollinator or thief?

nobody@flickr.com (BlueRidgeKitties) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:21:05 -0700

BlueRidgeKitties posted a photo:

These tiny beetles were all over the orchids on Mount Mitchell. I wonder if they are just stealing nectar or actually contributing to pollination. They seem too small to be pollinators for these flowers. It was getting dark, the batteries in my flash had died, and the pop-up flash just doesn't work for macros, so I was having quite a challenge to get a picture. Had to crank up the ISO and most of them were blurry. This was the best of the bunch.

Purple Orchid Close-up

nobody@flickr.com (BlueRidgeKitties) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:20:38 -0700

BlueRidgeKitties posted a photo:

It was rainy and getting dark, so I had quite a challenge getting decent close-ups of this orchid. This was the best I got with my camera.

Purple-fringed Orchid

nobody@flickr.com (BlueRidgeKitties) — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 06:12:37 -0700

BlueRidgeKitties posted a photo:

Platanthera psycodes flowering on top of Mount Mitchell, NC. These plants were the very reason I took the trip to the mountain after work yesterday. They are quite rare and considered threatened or endangered throughout much of their range in the Eastern US. I met a Park Ranger and asked where the best place to photograph these would be on the mountain and she told me the best ones close by had been picked by people. I was shocked! Who would go around picking these out of the wild? Not only can you get fined for doing that, but picking rare wildflowers will undermine any conservation efforts to keep them around for future generations. Please don't do that! Leave them where they grow and don't disturb them.

The weather decided to dump some heavy rain just at the time I got to the mountain, so everything was wet and covered in drops, but it did stop raining while there was still enough light for a couple of pictures and the clouds parted just on time for a gorgeous sunset again.