Archive for the 'e. aphyllum' Category
Marvellous ghosts
Very exciting day – looking for the ghost orchids (Epipogium aphyllum)! I really had been looking forward to seeing it, because these mysterious small pale orchids have become my favourites. Last year was spectacular for them so we didn’t dare to hope it would be equally good this year, but I think it turned out to be pretty close anyway. Last year we found a few groups with many orchids, this year the concentrations were much smaller but there were individuals scattered over a larger area, it was such a treat to be walking around the place and spot the flowers among the mosses and ferns. We checked out four ghost orchid locations in total, and found them in each – which wasn’t guaranteed at all, considering their nature. They can disappear for many years from a location and then suddenly pop up again when the conditions are right.
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I have been itching to go back to the Svartån location we visited last week, so I did that tonight. The volume of water had gone down considerably, just as predicted. Now it was possible to follow the creek on the cliffs surrounding the water, instead of making detours in the forest. I followed the creek up to where it finally levelled off, the next time I think I will follow it downstream. 
This visit confirmed the feeling I got the last time, the place is full of opportunities and even after 2.5 hours I had still only just scratched the surface. It’s not just the waterfalls but everything around them as well. You can use a wideangle to cram in as much as possible or you can concentrate on a single detail, and come back some other time and do it all over again because it will have changed. Marvellous!
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SVT Gävledala hade ett inslag om Hamra NP i måndags. De hade filmat vid Svartån, men jag kan inte avgöra om de filmat precis här eller hittat mer klipphällar annanstans längs Svartån… i så fall, var var det?
4 commentsGhosts
The opportunity to photograph the ghost orchid was so unique that I just had to get back there, this time with the zoom lens to capture the environment as well. I should mention that “ghost orchid” means different flowers in North America and Europe. Dendrophylax lindenii is the American ghost orchid, and Epipogium aphyllum is the Eurasian ghost orchid.
It was raining quite a lot but the Stormjacket came through for me so I think my camera is safe. But as far as Sundays go, well, I just can’t think of anything better than walking through a rain soaked forest in cool weather!
Ghost orchid
I only had one more orchid left to find in Loos – the ghost orchid (Epipogium aphyllum). It is probably also the most fascinating of all the orchids, as the English name implies. The Swedish name is skogsfru, literally translated as “wife of the forest”, the Finnish name metsänemä translates as “mother of the forest”. I think that the English name best describes the nature of this unpredictable flower. Now you see it, now you don’t – it comes and goes as it pleases, appears in one place this year and then is gone for ten years until the next time, or maybe it will never show itself again but suddenly appears some way on the side of the first place. It blooms only for a short time and then withers quickly and leaves no trace of its existence, it doesn’t even have any leaves to remind you that it once grew here. Just to show exactly how mysterious it can be, it threw in a surprise for us that even my guide had never seen before. We found a group of no less than 16 plants, and then nearby a group of 10 that was so tight it looked more like a ghost orchid bush. Normally you’re more likely to find groups of maybe 5, and even more likely just some lonely scattered flowers here and there on the forest floor. The orchid in the picture is one of the lonely ones, beautifully decorated with rain drops.
That large group of ghost orchids is still haunting my memory, if you please pardon the pun. It was an orchid encounter I won’t soon forget!
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