Swamp Walking

So many cool things to see in my swampy travels!

The beautiful flowers of the carnivorous Pitcher Plant (Saracinia purpurea).  

The flower is so cool looking!

These are quite a beautiful sight to behold while sloshing through the Tamarack and Northern White Cedar swamps. 

The leaves of the Pitcher Plant are full of water and digestive enzymes to eat whatever unsuspecting insects land on those slippery hairs at the mouth of the opening. Kinda looks like a mouth doesn't it?

My first sighting of the rare (or threatened, I'm not really sure) Goldie's Fern (Dryopteris goldiana).

This is a beautiful fern and even seems to have a little gold coloring in the middle of the pinnae. 

The unopened inflorescence of Platanthera clavellata. There are only two known locations of  this rare orchid on the Chippewa. 

The minute flowers of the rare orchid Malaxis monophyllos var. brachypoda.  

Some adorable little carnivorous Sundews (Drosera rotundifolia). Others I have seen have red sticky hairs and are very striking. 

Finally some evidence of all the mosquitos they have around here! They always try to get at my hands and fingers when I am taking pictures. This is the orchid Amerorchis rotundifolia and I can never seem to get a very good picture of it.  

The flowers of the orchid Platanthera unifolia just starting to unfold.
 

Finally starting to see some Grape Ferns!

The Grape Fern Sceptridium multifidum. 

Sceptridium dissectum

Some Botrychium matricharifolium with maturing spores. 

The rare Grape Fern Sceptridium rugulosum. 

This is one of the more ridiculous Northern White Cedar tip up mounds I have seen. I could have almost walked inside this one. 

The rare Goblin Fern Botrychium mormo. This little guy is tiny and likes moist hardwood forests just like the mosquitos unfortunately. Not much fun when this thing is so small and requires looking underneath the underbrush!

This doesn't look like much but this is what the edge of a floating Sphagnum moss mat looks like. You never really know how deep the water actually is unless you break through and you definitely do not want that to happen. It feels like you are walking on top of an air mattress on water. Just a little bit freaky. I ended up in a few soft spots where I started slowly sinking so I got out of there quick!

Sorry for the blurry photo but this is my first detection of the rare Canada Yew (Taxus canadensis). 

It looks a lot like a fir sapling but is a richer green and has fatter needles with a pointed tip. 

This is Northern Oak Fern (Gymnocarpium robertianum) and I found two new detections of it! Before that there only four known locations on the Chippewa. Notice the delicious Dewberry (Rubus pubescens) to the right of the fern. So awesome to snack on wild berries and botanize at the same time!  

A very common orchid in the swamps at this time of year, Platanthera obtusata var. obtusata. 

I will finish this with a very cool collection of Cladonia species in this old cut off telephone pole. 

Orchids and Mosquitos

Platanthera hookeri

This orchid should be called The Adder Mouth Orchid because the flowers look just like the mouth of a snake about to bite you!

Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens

These False Truffles are definitely not good to eat. 

I finally took a decent photo of a cedar tip up in a cedar swamp. 

I think I could write a book on tick behavioral biology at the end of this job.  

Some cool orange wood rotting fungi. 

The rare Moonwort Botrychium crenulatum. 

Another rare Moonwort, Botrychium pallidum. These guys are tiny and really hard to spot out in the field!

I love seeing all these frogs and toads because they are cute and they eat mosquitos. 

Another beautiful Coral Root Orchid, Corallorhiza maculata. 

The very common Moonwort, Botrychium virginianum. 

The sporophore of B. virginianum. 

The young fruit of the Beaked Hazel (Corylus cornuta). 

The Showy Lady Slipper (Cypripedium reginae) is the Minnesota state flower and you can see why. 

It is huge and gorgeous. 

This is the flower of the One Flowered Wintergreen (Moneses uniflora)

There are lots of interesting fungi in the hardwood forests. 

Not sure of the species of this Iris but it is quite a sight in the swamps. 

Slime mold!

Platanthera aquilonis most likely, but it might still be too early to tell. 

This tiny little orchid is called Listera cordata. 

This is a little wild cranberry (Oxycoccus quadripetalus). 

Twin Flower (Linnaea borealis)

A very interesting caterpillar that hitched a ride on my vest for a little while. 

These are the young female cones of the deciduous conifer called Tamarack (Larix laricina). They look just like rose buds. 

Pink Pyrola (Pyrola asarifolia)

I have only found this lichen three times out in the forest! It is Platismatia tuckermannii. 

This is what I look like out in the field now that it is mosquito and fly season! That bug net really saves my sanity some days.