"we have driven up the Gunflint Trail to look for moccasin flowers in the moss-covered jack-pine forests. Every year we find them. Before the 1999 blowdown we found them below the Seagull Guard Station. There was a woodland road that apparently many people used to look at the moccasin flowers... The year after the blowdown we drove up to find the area had been hard-hit by the derecho and was subsequently logged over.
... past the Guard Station... down a two-track... There were hundreds and hundreds of blooming pink ladys-slipper, or moccasin flowers... cypripedium acaule... we saw the nipped and scarred basal leaves of a moccasin flower that had been just pushing through the moss when the fire swept over. The plant had healed itself and was up just a couple of inches. The roots had been saved. We spotted a few more which had barely survived... Standing a little over a foot tall was a full-grown moccasin flower. The deep pink was already faded into a chamois colored slipper. The early warm spring had robbed us of the color, but not of the delight in knowing it had survived. A few minutes later we found another this one still carrying a slight pink glow." URL : http://www.grandmarais-mn.com/placed/index.php?sect_rank=5&story_id=233669 ***************** Regards, Viateur _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
