File:Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory, vol. 11 (1934) (20688454405).jpg

Title: Contributions from the Botanical Laboratory, vol. 11
Identifier: contributionsfro11univ (find matches)
Year: 1934 (1930s)
Authors: University of Pennsylvania. Botanical Laboratory; University of Pennsylvania. Morris Arboretum
Subjects: Botany; Botany
Publisher: Philadelphia : (s. n. )
Contributing Library: Penn State University
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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likely to result in invasion by fungi and death of the plant, so personal collection of it is preferable to pur- chase from dealers. There is, how- ever, little use trying to cultivate it unless strongly acid sandy peat soil is available, and the area is free from parasitic fungi, slugs and cut- worms. Purple Five-leaf Orchid, Fogonia (Isotria) verticillata (Willd.) Nutt. The root system of this species, like that of the Sweet Crest-Orchid, consists of an extensive series of rootstocks, by which it spreads into large colonies. Its favored habitat, however, is dry upland peat under pine or oak trees. It occurs prac- tically throughout the eastern states, although becoming rare northward. Attempts to cultivate it are rarely successful, owing to the difficulty of keeping the soil sufficiently acid, and of preventing fungi from over- whelming it.
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Edgar T. Wherry Pogonia (Isotria) affinis Virginia, late May, 1923 Green Five-leaf Orchid, Pogonia (Isotria) affinis Austin. This species has been collected at only a very few localities from North Carolina to Maine, but is probably more common than sup- posed, and is overlooked. For it has one of the longest resting pe- riods of any of our eastern Orchids, during which it remains dormant underground and sends up no leaves or flowering stalk at all. Woods where it has occurred in abundance in one favorable season have been watched for at least ten years with- out its reappearing, and no one can tell how much longer a wait will be necessary. Unlike its relative, just discussed, it does not spread by rootstocks, the crown being sur- rounded by a group of long radiat- ing slightly fleshy roots. There is no record of its successful cultiva- tion. Grass-pink Orchid, Calopogon put- chcllus (Sw.) R.Br, or Limodorum tuberosum L. In early summer many moist grassy pinelands throughout the eastern United States and Canada are gay with this Orchid's brilliant magenta flowers, unusual in having the gold-bearded lip standing erect. Its leaves and flower-stalks arise from a fleshy corm, which usually grows imbedded in moist peat or peaty sand, of moderately to in- tensely acid reaction. It is fairly easy to cultivate if soil of this type is available, but will not remain in the garden long if there are any mice or chipmunks around, for its corms form one of their favorite foods. BoG-RosE Orchid, Arethusa bulbosa L. During the ice advances of the Glacial period this species seems to have survived in the Carolina moun- tains, but after the last ice sheet melted it soon invaded the newly developing bogs, and has reached northern Ontario and Newfound- land. Like the species just dis- cussed, its root system consists of a solitary coi'm, but this differs in requiring for its growth a surround- ing of intensely acid living sphag- num moss. Even if this is pro- vided the plant may vanish from the garden through the activities of rodents, and in Fuller's recent book on the Orchids of Wisconsin one cultivator reports that the only way he could keep it was to plant it in moss supported on pieces of wood entirely surrounded by water. Three-birds Orchid, Pogonia (Tri- phora) trianthophora (Sw.) BSP. Theoretically this should be the easiest of the Crested Orchids to cultivate, because it is the only one which grows naturally in rich loamy soil, such as is present in the aver- age garden. It is adapted, also, to a wide range of climatic conditions, being known in practically every state east of the Mississippi River, and a few further west. Extensive colonies develop on wooded hilsides along stream valleys, and hundreds of its curious bird-like gray and purplish flowers may sometimes be seen there in early fall. The next season, however, hardly a single plant will be found in the same spot, for this, like several other Orchids, has a well-marked resting period. Its tuberoid roots remain dormant underground, absorbing nourish- ment from the surrounding neutral humus, for several years; then in some season when conditions are exactly right, large numbers of them will again burst into bloom. Meanwhile, however, rodents and no doubt other organisms are feed- ing upon these succulent roots, and in a garden where pests become overabundant because of protection from their natural enemies, few of the plants will escape destruction. : ^^-^^ >^*t-'^.^i^

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