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Hunting Orchids from a Kayak
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Amidst the lily pads
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Hunting Orchids From A Kayak. Published in the newsletter of the Connecticut Orchid Society, September 2007. All rights reserved by Valerie Allgrove
Hunting native orchids especially in New England is a fun but frustrating hobby. Free time is short, the flowering season is short, coordinating both of those is difficult and then there is the matter of finding the orchids themselves.
How many hours have I spent in the sun, battling mosquitoes, slogging through sharp grass, pushing through thickets of thorns, to find absolutely nothing.
In August 2003 I stood on the wooded slope of a pond in lower New Hampshire, looking at the gorgeous herbaceous undergrowth. Looking at the beautiful bright water of the pond it ran down to meet. Looking at the plants growing just across that long, narrow pond, a mix of grasses, dead conifers, and low bushes that just screamed "bog environment!" to me.and I couldn't get there.
Or could I?
I was just a few miles down the road from one of my favorite sporting goods stores. Off I went, returning about 2 hours later with a brand-new dark green Wilderness Systems Pungo 100 kayak, a PFD (life vest) and a paddle.
10 feet long and 48 lbs, the kayak was easy to strap onto the roof of my car by myself. 30 inches wide and 13 deep, it was not tippy, and with my weight in it, still only needed a few inches of water to float.
Within minutes, I was at that bog across the water, looking at Sundews (Drocera rotundifolia) close up. I didn't see any orchids that day, but a new exciting way to access locations had been discovered.
Finding orchids is still a matter of persistence and luck. Paddling just makes it faster and without thorns.
Besides the kayak, PFD, and paddle, there are a few other pieces of equipment you will need. First is the drybox to protect your camera. This is a small, hinged plastic box that is easy to open and shut which you can secure to the front crosslines of your boat using carabineer clips for easy removal. Getting in the habit of using it correctly, every time, has saved my cameras numerous times. Sometimes getting out of the boat to get close-up shots can be a struggle to balance self and paddle while extricating legs from the plastic encasement (the Pungo is not my only boat and not the lightest one for overland hikes with boat to get launched I prefer a tiny, 28 lbs boat that feels more like wearing a pair of tight jeans than recreational kayaking). Wet self, wet boat, but not wet camera is the goal.
For any larger bodies of water or anything but the quietest rivers, a lightweight skirt is useful. This item, worn around your waist as implied by the name, locks over the gunnels of the kayak preventing any water from splashing into the cockpit. It keeps you dry in bad weather or busy water, although it can be unbearably hot in the summer. I've taken my Pungo 100 through upper stretches of the Farmington River that are considered class II whitewater.
A drybag is also good to have to hold a towel, spare clothes, and lunch for longer paddling trips. Many kayaks include comfortable seats and I've spent hours in mine with only brief breaks for lunch or leg stretching.
The more I'm out there, the more I know what to look for in terms of locations.
Most ponds in New England have a high side and a low side. The high side tends to be wooded, dark, and orchid-free. The low side may have too much in terms of dense grassy growths. Or it may be too dry; most of the grass orchids we have in New England grow in wet grassy areas.
A good topographic map can help identify areas where there is a seep, or a potential for a seep coming off the higher areas. This means that water draining from higher areas will concentrate in running into the pond through this specific area. Even in dry times, this area will be damp, supporting Sphagnum moss, Sundews, and other moisture-loving plants.
Paddling a pond, I look for low bushes like blueberry or Clethra. Add in the indicator of Sphagnum and some grasses, and you have a good potential location. Add in a dose of luck and timing and you see the white spikes of Ladies Tresses (Spiranthes cernua) glistening.
This weekend I accidentally stumbled upon a patch of 79 Spiranthes at a small pond in Pomfret, CT, where I had gone for an evening swim. Just barely beginning to open, they would have been easy to overlook.
Going back the next morning in better light, I counted them and also discovered 3 plants of another orchid, past bloom, hidden below the blueberry bushes. The second orchid is probably Platanthera clavellata, based on the dried flowers clearly showing a long spur and the leaf structure.
Circumnavigating the entire pond took about an hour. I enjoyed seeing a variety of botanical areas as well as some outstanding large bullfrogs. And found, perhaps 300 yards from the first site, a second patch of the Spiranthes. 19 more plants there, much more densely growing than the first grouping.
There are ponds everywhere, slow rivers, and marshy areas that are impossible to walk through. With a kayak, I can look for orchids in more places than ever.
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