Eoin found an exotic, carnivorous plant in the pasture. It was growing on a mossy rock in a marshy stream. After consultation with our naturalist consultant, Donna, it was ID’d as a Round Leaved Sundew, Drosera rotundifolia. Unlike most of its cousins, this one is happy in northern climates, and it is not endangered, even if rare. We returned it to its chosen spot. It was enjoying a gnat. I have never seen, or noticed, this plant before.
Today we made a road trip going to the Eshqua bog in Hartland, VT where the Showy Lady’s Slippers, Cypripedium reginae, are in bloom. These orchids are under some environmental pressure, but seem happy in this preserve, which is supported by the Nature Conservancy. It is actually not a bog, but a fen. A fen is an alkaline wetland, while a bog is acidic.
The alkalinity of the Eshqua bog comes from a nearby carbonate deposit. The carbonates were originally a reef off the coast of North America 400 million years ago when the continent was in tropical ocean waters. Later it was pushed onto the continent and metamorphosed into schist and ended up alkalinizing this wetland for the lady’s slippers benefit.
New blooms: feverfew, stonecrop sedum, summer sweet, rosebay rhododendron.
Drosera rotundifolia, Round Leaved Sundew, is a carnivorous plant happy in VT and similar climates including Alaska. Eoin found this one on a mossy rock in a pasture stream.
Cypripedium reginae, showy lady slipper, is found in the Eshqua bog, a Nature Conservancy site in Hartland, VT.
Cypripedium reginae, showy lady slipper, some detail of the orchid.
Spirea with a pollinating wasp. That yellow/gray saddle-bag is a load of pollen.
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