Prophetstown Fen Spiranthes

Last Saturday I attended an INPAWS field trip to Prophetstown State Park near Lafayette, IN.

The focus of the field trip was to see the fen, which I had never been to. The park is fairly new and not too far away, so it is worth a visit. Most of the park is restored/planted prairie. The prairie is a little lacking in diversity, but the Big Bluestem was impressive. The fen was to the left of the Sycamore stand in the background. The field trip had a good turnout, despite the sprinkles. I was happy to see a fen.

I found this Spiranthes orchid while venturing out to identify a tree. (It turned out to be a Persimmon.) There were several around. I believe that this is Spiranthes cernua, since it has a larger lip, multi-ranked flowers, and nodding flowers.

I love close-up views of Spiranthes. This is the same flower as the photo above. The flower was on a stalk that was at least 18 inches.

This Spiranthes was in the same fen, but quite a ways from the first orchid. This was near the open marl run that had a lot of wonderful fen species like Grass-of-Parnassus and Purple False Foxglove blooming. I believe that this is Spiranthes ovalis, since it is on a slender stem with small flowers, a lip that is less than 5mm, it wasn't flowering in the spring, it didn't have a green center, and the flowers were arranged in three ranks.

Close-up of the S. ovalis. According to Orchids of Indiana by Homoya, this is primarily a southern Indiana species that occurs further north along the Wabash River. It is supposed to prefer partial shade, which was not the case here, but it was in calcareous soil.