Though a few orchid species seem to be disappearing from Aroostook, the showy lady’s slipper, our most spectacularly beautiful native orchid, appears to be holding its own in Woodland and, in all but one site, in Perham.
In the Woodland Bog Nature Conservancy Preserve, I counted 135 showy lady’s slippers (Cyripsdium reginac) in 2000; last year there were 147 in those same patches. The total number of blossoming C reginae there is actually almost double that, given that since 2000 I have discovered two additional stations of this glorious plant. Counting these, last year’s total of flowering showy lady’s slippers in Woodland Bog comes to 272.
The Perham Bog Perserve doesn’t boast nearly as many, but here too they seem not to be diminishing; in 2000 there were 47 flowering C. Reginae there and last year, 59. The only other showy lady’s slippers station in Perham has, however, shown a precipitous decline; where there were 46 blossoming plants in 2000, there was just one in 2017.
Less conspicuous, but just as exquisite is the small round-leaved orchis (Amerochis rotundifolia). This 4-inch tall orchid, with its ale lavender purple spotted blossoms, is considerably rarer than the showy lady’s slipper, but there is a spot or two in Perham, and to a lesser extent in Woodland, where it could actually be called abundant, though the number of blossoms from year to year varies more than for C. Reginae. On average, 1100-1200 of these flower each year in the Perham Bog Nature Conservancy Preserve. Woodland Bog, however, has definitely seen something of a decline in numbers in recent years; in 2000 I counted 514, but last year only 132.
Would you like to see these flowers in their native habitat? The Nylander Museum is conducting two tours of the Woodland Bog Preserve. The first will be on Saturday, June 23, when the Amerorchis are in bloom, and the second a week later, on June 30, when the showy lady’s slipper will in likelihood be blossoming.
Tours will start at 9 a.m. from the intersection of Route 228 and the ATV trail on the old AVR railroad bed. After a half-mile walk down the trail, you will need to step over a brook and slog through a bog, so waterproof footwear is recommended.
Richard Clark is a longtime member of the Nylander Board of Trustees and an active member of Friends of the Nylander. He conducts tours of the facility; check the Nylander Facebook page for details.
