Showy orchis and ladyslippers!

This past weekend was a two-fer: Saturday we monitored Cypripedium candidum in a high-quality prairie in western Chicagoland, and on Sunday I drove about 150 miles (getting lost twice, unusual for me!) well into farm country to climb a wooded hillside to see Galearis spectabilis on the edge of the slope, in afternoon sun and glorious bloom! This was the first time I had ever seen this particular beauty. 

In many states it is declining quickly, and now I can see why: this particular hillside is rapidly being overtaken by garlic mustard, whose antifungal properties spell doom for the ground-dwelling fungus that nourishes our native orchids. We spoke with the landowner about the joys of orchid conservation and the need for keeping garlic mustard and other invasive species at bay, and will hope they will do the management essential for the orchid's survival. 

The gentleman said there used to be a large colony on his property years ago, but it had disappeared. This is the first one he has seen in many years, probably due to the abundant rains this spring? The floral associates were Virginia creeper, bedstraw, poison ivy (always!), black and white snakeroots, carrion vine, jack-in-the-pulpit, wild grape, clearweed, sweet cicely, and balsam ragwort. It seemed very happy nestled in its bed of white pine needles. The tree diversity was very high there; the woods seemed not to have been logged, in recent memory, anyway. There were white pine, shagbark hickory, American elm, hackberry and black cherry nearby.

Moroccan food and violets

Today we went on our first rare plant foray of the calendar year - for the native dog violets, locally abundant only in a few pristine wooded areas. Unfortunately heavy, intermittent thunderstorms started right as we were setting up our survey, so we weren't able to safely monitor this weekend, but we did find a great Moroccan restaurant within reach, afterwards, and had hot minty tea and a wonderful tagine in its traditional ceramic cookpot. The company was great and we spent time discussing art, kids and upcoming monitoring plans, so it was time well spent.

The early-season marsh marigolds (Caltha palustris) were in their full golden glory and spring beauty, trout lilies and other early spring woodland ephemerals are well along. The trilliums are not yet up. Although our monitoring team has learned to easily ID dog violet, a stemmy, trailing violet with long-spurred light purple flowers, even out of bloom, it's just more fun to see them in their full glory, so I think we'll wait another week. I hope the weather is better next Saturday! : )

Here's Trillium grandiflorum. I can't wait until I see them in the woods this spring! : )

Well, the trillium series is finished - for now. Just in time for the next exhibit at Whole Foods River Forest's cafe and gallery. (Whew!)

  Illinois is home to nine species of trilliums: Trillium grandiflorum (the large white trillium everyone thinks of when you say trillium), Trillium sessile, Trillium cernuum, Trillium nivale (the dainty snow trillium), Trillium recurvatum (probably the most common species in our woodlands), Trillium erectum, Trillium flexipes, Trillium viride and Trillium cuneatum. I grouped the series - or tried to anyway - most logically by color. The painting above is of the two green trilliums, T. cuneatum (left) and T. viride (right).

Waiting for spring...

Groundhog's day has come and gone, and six more weeks of winter is yet to come, love it or not. I keep thinking about all the sweet orchids and other rarities enjoying their winter sleep, and wondering how they'll fare this coming year. In Illinois, the numbers on the white prairie fringed orchids had tanked in previous years but it seems that there is a very slight upswing because of the wet springs we've had the past two years, and attention to management in some areas. Drought is very hard on them, and unfortunately all the good management in the world can't make up for loss of rainfall....

I've been sidetracked from painting by other projects - church stuff, this orchid article, advocacy for the Mike Quigley congressional campaign, but now it's time to get back to the boards and get a few more finished - I have an upcoming exhibit at Marion Street Cheese Market. What to paint, what to paint??? (And no, I'm not painting cheese! I'm still painting orchids! : ))