Posts Tagged ‘Trientalis’
The Stars are Shining at Ikenick Creek
The pond in the northwest wetland was created by a beaver dam. Later in the summer, it is filled with aquatic plants.
Sundews (Drosera rotundifolia) and starflowers. All we needed was a moonwort (Botrychium spp.) to complete the celestial theme.
I had been to the wetlands along Ikenick Creek four times before, but it had always been late in the summer to see the interesting aquatics, so on Friday (June 7), Sabine Dutoit and Nancy Bray and I headed up to Linn County to see the early flowers. The wetlands are hidden away on the west side of Highway 126, just across the road from Clear Lake. In fact, the lovely clear water of the lake is fed by Ikenick Creek. The day before our trip, the Forest Service had apparently done a controlled burn nearby, and while we were there, many trucks were pumping water out of the creek where it crossed Forest Road 2672. We had to park a little farther away and listen to the pumping all day, but it was a small price to pay to explore a really interesting wetland.
Actually there are four wetlands in an area the Forest Service has designated as the Smith Ridge Special Wildlife Habitat Area. There are several more just outside this area, and all together they refer to them as the Smith Ridge wetland complex. I didn’t know this when I first noticed the intriguing set of wetlands on Google Earth. Smith Ridge is not named on the maps, and although it does drop off hard along the east edge where Hwy. 126 heads south, when you’re in it, the area appears to be basically flat, so it’s hard for me to start using that name now. Whatever you want to call this area, these wetlands contain a diverse collection of wetland habitats, including wet meadows, bogs, sedge marshes, shrublands, swampy woods, creeks, and small ponds. Navigating numerous beaver channels and sudden deep holes in the thick layer sphagnum bog makes exploration tricky, but on this trip, we managed to get everyone back to the car with dry feet (not always so in the past!). Read the rest of this entry »
More Exciting Finds at Gordon Meadows
Note the greenish color and droopy tepals of Corallorhiza trifida
Yesterday (June 27), John Koenig and I went to Gordon Meadows. We had a terrific day and made some additions to the plant list (John took home a bunch of graminoids and may have more additions to the already extensive list from the Carex Project Report).
Our first discovery of the day came even before we got into the meadows. In the woods just before the trail intersection, we found 2 stalks of a very funny-looking coralroot. Of course, I hoped it might be Corallorhiza trifida, but I’ve seen many odd coralroots over the years and without a good reference we couldn’t be sure and soon forgot about it. Looking at my (not very good) photos and ones on the web this morning, however, I would say it is a dead ringer. Especially the drooping lateral petals. What do you think?
We explored a little of the bit of meadow west of the trail first. The Menziesia was blooming nicely there. The ones in the woods were barely in bud. The Microseris borealis is still blooming beautifully there. Next we went into the main meadow.
The wet meadow was filled with elephant head, bistort, and white bog orchids.