lady slippers
 

walk in the woods yesterday

Nice! They seem to be in abundance this year. There's some fungus in the soil that is is necessary for them to survive and it must have had good conditions lately.

Yes we have a lot growing and spreading

The lady slipper is a member of the orchid family. In order to survive and reproduce, the lady slipper interacts with a fungus in the soil from the Rhizoctonia genus. The mutually beneficial relationship between the orchid and the fungus is. Known as " symbiosis". Lady slippers also require bees for pollination.

We have been getting them every year, but this years "crop" was fewer than usual, and they are a lot smaller (shorter) than usual. We also had a number of then "chewed off". We have seen a groundhog around, I wonder if he's the culprit?

We also have a few that are white instead of the usual pink. I have been told that they also need to be near White Pine.


Attachment 9457

Attachment 9458

yes, quite a flush of them this year. i noticed quite a few white ones also.
...must have been a lot of fungus goin' on this winter :)

Lady Slippers are so pretty. Never seen a white one. Can someone post a picture??? I have also noticed quite a few Jack In The Pulpits this year! They're fun, too!:)

white slipper
 

white slipper

I love the view point you have on the flowers. I like how you got down low to take that shot. Very beautiful pictures.