Normal Late Spring Events

My year is filled with annual events that mark each season and give a type of stability to the changing face of Blue Jay Barrens. Bird comings and goings, bloomings, hatchings, animal appearances, plant growth and decline; each event confirms my belief that the heart of Blue Jay Barrens is still strong and healthy. Box turtles will always be special to me and the spring season is full of their vigorous reclamation of life following the winter hibernation. I never tire of watching them.

Turtles are a wonder. An Eastern Box Turtle has a life span that rivals that of humans and it may live that entire life within an area no bigger than a football field. This large male shows the signs of many years spent wandering this ground. It may have been here for the last 70 or 80 years and might have witnessed plowing of the hillsides and planting of agricultural crops, along with the massive erosion that followed. I can imagine this fellow stepping out of the way of a cow’s hoof, closing up as it’s nearly run over by a log truck, feeling the ground shake beneath its shell as the farm tractor rumbles by, and being picked up and examined by several generations of children. This turtle has probably witnessed much of the site history that I’m so curious about.

Cooper’s Hawks are regulars at Blue Jay Barrens. Although they are regularly seen hunting small birds near the feeders, it’s this time of year that they are most noticeable. They become quite vocal during the nesting and young rearing period. I find an active nest about every other year, but they probably nest here every year. Most nests are high up in the tallest cedar trees and are very hard to spot from the ground. Some years they appear to use an old squirrel nest as a base and this makes it even harder to recognize from below.

Tree Swallows reenact the same performance each year. Even though they look and act the same, I’m sure they’re not the same pair. The only difference seems to be an increase in numbers. The number of returning swallows now greatly exceeds the number of available nest boxes.

The failure of the Yellow Lady’s Slipper to produce seeds is one of those annual events that I would like to change. It’s now clear that the bend in the double bloomed stalk is going to result in the withering of the flowers. I don’t know what caused the stalk to bend and then dry as this one has. I’ve seen a lot of strange things happen to this plant and this year has added a couple of new ones.

The single flower that flipped upside down is shriveling quickly. There’s probably no chance of this one producing any seed. I suppose it’s alright to put in a few disappointments as long as there are enough joys to cancel them out.

Topsy Turvey Slippers

If you prefer projects that are controllable and follow a predictable course, you probably wouldn’t enjoy managing populations of wild native plants. I took a rainy walk through the woods in search of additional Yellow Lady’s Slipper plants and found instead that my existing plant had made a rather unexpected transformation. My slippers have reoriented themselves into a sole up position.

The reclining stalk with the single bloom straightened itself into an upright position. This maneuver flipped the flower onto its back. It’s now looking quite unorchid like.

At the same time, the stalk with the double bloom has bent itself double just below the upper leaf. The twin flower bearing stalks are now directed towards the ground and the blooms are in an upside down position.

Will potential pollinators recognize the flowers in this unnatural orientation? I’ve always felt that the chances were slim of a pollinator carrying Yellow Lady’s Slipper pollen to this isolated plant. Now it seems that this event has reduced those chances even further.

It’s not hard to imagine the double bloomed stalk becoming damaged and allowing the flowers to fall. The stem doesn’t appear damaged though, just bent. It’s harder to understand the reason for the reclining stem suddenly straightening up. I would expect the stem to fully develop prior to the emergence of the flower. Fortunately, I enjoy mysteries and will add this to my collection. I can almost imagine this being the work of Woods Elves that rearranged the flowers and then hid laughing behind a tree stump when I came by and did a double take at the new look of my orchid plant.

Double Yellow Lady's Slipper

The Blue Jay Barrens population of Large Yellow Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium calceolus, has put on a spectacular show this year with three times the blooms that appeared last year. That sounds great, but once again I’m dealing with an extremely small population. In this case it’s just a single plant. None the less, the single stalk with flower that appeared last year has been outdone by the two stalks and three blooms that are currently present. Those adept at math can quickly see that this must mean one of the stalks is carrying two flowers.

I give credit for two flowers on one stalk even though one of the blooms failed to produce a proper pouch. It might be possible that the weather has helped the plant develop this year, but I feel that a more important factor is the fact that the deer have not eaten on the plant for the past three years. It was common for this plant to be chewed to the ground in the spring. A few years ago, a fallen tree formed a partial corral around the plant and that seems to have kept the deer from wandering into this area.

Even though the second flower didn’t fully form, I take it as a sign of increased vigor that the plant even attempted two flowers. I may have only a single plant, but I would like that plant to be as healthy as possible.

The second stalk also had some development problems and failed to produce an upright posture. As I do each time this plant blooms, I’m hoping that seeds somehow develop. I thought that was going to happen last year when the pod remained green and began to expand. Things looked good for a while and then the pod began to yellow and eventually dropped off.

At least the one plant I have is doing well. I keep looking for other Yellow Lady’s Slipper plants. I don’t know if this plant represents the last of a population that was once common here or if it is the first to show up. I believe that I’ll find another of its kind and when I do, I’ll wonder how I ever missed seeing such a distinctive plant.

Following Up

I thought it might be a good idea to give an update on a couple of the things I’ve posted about before and have been keeping an eye on. This is the pot in which I planted the seeds and other debris left by Bluebirds roosting over the winter in the nest boxes. This pot is surrounded by several others and I decided that any plant that could be found in all pots could not be attributed to the Bluebirds. Those shared plants were removed from this pot.

The two most common plants are Japanese Honeysuckle, the opposite leaved plant in the lower center of the photo and Multiflora Rose, shown just above the honeysuckle. It’s no wonder these invasive species are so hard to control. With birds dropping the seeds everywhere, there will be no end to new seedlings. The third most common plant is some species of grape, shown in the lower right.

The seeds are maturing on the pot cultured Leavenworthia uniflora. Here are a few of the pods, some are still holding their seed and others have let the seed drop. Once all of the seed has matured, I’ll remove all plants from the pot and then get the dropped seeds ready for summer by lightly stirring and packing down the soil. Leavenworthia seeds need a period of warm weather to prepare them for germination in late winter.

I saved some of the seeds for distribution in likely growing areas around Blue Jay Barrens. I’m going to plant some on a few ant mounds to see if the Leavenworthia will grow in association with the Mound Builder Ants. Other winter annuals can do it, so I thought Leavenworthia might also.

The Yellow Lady’s Slipper orchid is still awaiting pollen. I’m assuming a pollinated flower would begin to wither as the plant began seed production. The bloom commonly lasts for several weeks before fading.

Edwards' Hairstreak Butterfly larvae are still spending all of their time in the tree. I check periodically to see if the ants have begun building a byre in which to store the growing larvae. The literature says that sometime around the larvae’s third molt, the ants will begin to take the larvae into protective custody at the base of the tree during the day. This should be happening soon.

The young oak leaves show increased signs of feeding, but I haven’t seen any larvae moving onto the leaves during daylight hours. During the day they seem to maintain a position that tends to mimic the buds and bud scales.

Yellow Lady's Slipper

I look forward to seeing this plant each spring. The problem is that this is the only specimen of Yellow Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium calceolus, found at Blue Jay Barrens and it only produces a bloom about once every three years. The other years it either produces no flower bud or the plant gets eaten by a deer.

Even without the flower, the broad, strong veined leaves make it an attractive plant. There’s also a nice hairy covering on the leaves and stem. I’m a big fan of hairy plants.

The flower has three petals. Two are long and curled and drape down from the sides of the bloom, while a lower petal is modified into an open bowl shape. The hood arching above the lower petal is actually one of the sepals. The lower petal gets all the attention. It’s supposed to resemble a slipper, which it might if you mean a slipper for a cartoon character.

The plant has never produced any seed, so I’m suspecting that it cannot self fertilize. I chased a little bee out when I got close to the flower. It’s unlikely that any bee would visit a distant Lady’s Slipper and then show up here. I’m not hopeful of this plant ever being fertilized. I suspect this little bee got in and couldn’t get back out. Not a likely candidate for a pollinator.

Some trees fell a couple of years ago to make a corral around the plant. Maybe this will divert the deer enough to keep them from browsing here. Every year I search the hillsides for more Yellow Lady’s Slippers. It’s quite possible that there are more individuals that I have yet to locate. I hope so.