Troutbirder II

Troutbirder II
Click on Mark Twain to jump to Troutbirders book review blog

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Yellow Ladyslipper (A native wild orchid)


The yellow ladyslipper is the most common wild orchid in the U.S. and is found in almost every state. There are 3 accepted varieties of Yellow Lady's Slipper, 2 of which are found in Minnesota: Greater Yellow Lady's Slipper (var. pubescens) and Small Yellow Lady's Slipper (var. makasin). Despite their wide range, they are threatened or endangered in many states. Habitat loss and public destruction are the main causes.
Recently, Mrs. T along with our friends Gary and Rosie visited a State preserve in Northeastern Iowa. There we saw what I can only describe as the most amazing appearance of a native wildflower I have ever seen in my life. There were literally thousands of these rare gems within sight..... 
A bad idea, besides being illegal, is to dig native orchids up and try to transplant them to your own landscape.  They rarely survive. Here Karl Ruser  explains why.....
"Why don't you sell the Minnesota State Flower?!!!!", is a very common question. We really don't like to disappoint our customers, really we don't! But, we just don't feel that the Showy Lady Slipper and the other native orchids are suitable plants for the landscape.

 

First of all, they cannot be sustainably produced in a commercial sense. It takes 12-15 years for a plant to reach flowering age. That would mean we could only have raised two generations - at best - in the whole time Landscape Alternatives has been in business!

 

Second, they are very picky as to site conditions. For the most part, orchids grow where most other plants cannot. This is usually in soils with very low fertility. Believe it or not, almost any otherwise suitable landscape setting has far too many nutrients available for the plants to survive for more than just a few years.

 

Third, each orchid species requires a very special fungus to associate with it in a complex cycle. A native lady slipper seed must be in contact with some of this fungus when it germinates. The fungus provides the energy and nutrients the young orchid needs to grow. Eventually, the orchid develops enough so that its own leaves and roots can sustain it. At this point the role of fed and feeder switch. The fungus partially grows into the orchid plant and is sustained by it for the rest of the orchid's life. When the orchid finally is able to produce seed, the fungus is already there and ready to once again take on its supportive role for any new germinating plants. Without this natural association neither the fungus or an orchid patch will survive for long.

 

The only way an orchid can get this fungus into itself is for it to be there during germination. If it is introduced later in the orchid's life it will not be taken up. There are tissue cultured native orchids that can be found for sale. Unfortunately, the methods used to culture the plants cannot also include a fungus or any other microbial growth. The medium that the seed is germinated on takes the place of the fungus - while the plant is young. However, once the plant is removed from culture and potted up it is too late for the fungus to be introduced. Therefore, while such a plant may reach maturity in your garden, its seeds will never have the opportunity to naturally spread and develop into a self sustaining orchid patch in your garden. The plant you buy is the plant you get. That is not the Landscape Alternatives' way. We strive to help our customers develop self-sustaining native plantings in their gardens. The opportunity for re-seeding is an integral part of native plant gardening!


Please support efforts to protect natural remnant populations of our native orchids. DO NOT DIG THEM FROM THE WILD! From time to time "rescued" plants from construction projects become available for sale. Again, while these plants may grow in your garden for a few years, all the problems in 1-3 above will still apply. It is far better to make sure that these plants are not disturbed in the first place or, at the least, are transplanted to sites with active native remnant populations of the orchid (and thus the fungus).

 

20 comments:

  1. I remember this lovely flower when we visited Minnesota in the late 90s. Such an unusual and pretty plant!

    ReplyDelete
  2. The photos are nice. The article was really interesting! Hope these plants will be protected. I certainly will not be digging any of them up.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A good, informative post. I didn't know any of that, but then, I'm not a plant person. I hope people let them alone.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Another of my blogging friends (Far Side of Fifty) has shown me these beauties before. I love them, and they look as magical to me as any flower I've ever seen. Thanks for all the information about them that I didn't know! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I knew it was illegal to dig and transplant them, but not the fungus story! Thanks for teaching us what we should know, Teach!

    Jo, Stella and Zkhat

    ReplyDelete
  6. i hope they stay natural, then!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Aren't they just the prettiest? My mother-in-law has some pink ones growing in her garden. She dug them up just before a new highway was being built. Otherwise, they would have been bulldozed over! :(
    But wild flowers are always best.

    Happy weekend!
    xo Catherine

    ReplyDelete
  8. We have found several places where they grow. We never tell anyone.

    ReplyDelete
  9. These ladyslippers are beautiful. We had some growing in the woods around our house when I lived in the mountains of North Carolina.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Lovely bloom and sensational to be among

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow, what a sight that must have been to see thousands at one time!
    Great information, and great to spread the word.
    I was appalled years & years ago, when we learned of someone digging up / transplanting lady slippers.
    Let wild things be wild.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Very interesting information! I can't help wondering how long it took them to figure all that out!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I have figured out that I can enlarge your post enough to be able to read it, but look forward to your getting rid of the navy blue background or enlarging the type before you post.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow, that is a lot of interesting information! I once dug up a hepatica plant in the woods when I was out camping. Of course it didn't survive in the shrubs by my house. I never tried it again. I'm a big fan of trilliums and when I learned that it takes five years for them to bloom, I gained a lot more respect for how difficult it is to raise them. They are declining in the wild due to loss of habitat--how terribly sad to hear that story over and over again.

    ReplyDelete
  15. What an amazing relationship between the fungus and the flower.
    I can see a construction site rescue but it really has too complex a life cycle for the gardener to replicate.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Good information! The Lady's Slippers were beautiful this year, I am glad you found a patch to photograph. We have had good luck with the tissue culture Yellow ones..we have a nice patch going..but we have several natural groups in the area too...our land has the right fungus! They are getting to be larger bunches of blooms every year. :)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Great post at so many levels: the beauty of this rare plant, the importance of wild plant refuges, and the ecological lesson of the plant-fungus association. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  18. What a beautiful bloom, and the information on the life cycle is so interesting. Yes, we'd best leave this one to live on its one in nature, and protect the environment so it can be safe there.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I have seen this lovely orchid in the forest around here. They do not seem plentiful but I doubt if they are endangered.

    ReplyDelete