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Dear All, Apr 20, 2007
I was out today to the postage stamp-sized woodlot (1 3/4 acre ?) to
clear a road that has been unused for 7 years and look around.
The several patches of Prince's Pine (Chimaphila umbellata) have
responded well to the selective cutting in 2000 and are loaded with
capsules. About 1/3 have not shed all seeds yet and release a cloud of
pinkish-brown seeds when flicked. I have not previously found them shedding.
On Dec 24 (2006) I cut two of the hand-pollinated (North Alton)
Common Lady's Slipper scapes near the base, taped each to a short length
of wire and 'planted' them in the small woodlot by sticking the wire
into the ground; the idea being that this arrangement should emulate
natural seeding, whatever that is. (This area had Common Lady's Slipper
60 years ago but they died out as the forest canopy closed.) One capsule
had a small spider and ~1/20 charge of seeds and the scape was
undamaged. [A grass culm, inserted through an open valve became loaded,
by static electricity, with a brush of tiny seeds at the end.] The other
scape was bent at 90o at the upper third and the capsule was entirely
empty.
At least four deer (so I am told) spent much of the fall and early
winter here and, standing in one place, I counted 11 piles of droppings;
lots more scattered elsewhere. Dry Lady's Slipper capsules are not a
treat for deer apparently. But they had Rye fields on two sides and a
Strawberry field, mulched with straw, to the east.
I noticed a large cocoon (~5 cm long and 4 cm in diameter) hanging
from a Black (?) Cherry tree. The outer shell was translucent like thin
parchment and within this shell (seen through a short slit I made) there
was a loose brownish mesh with a tan lump (presumably with a chrysalis
inside) near the middle. Any guesses as to what it might be ?
Yours truly, Dave Webster, Kentville
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