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Hi Sherman & All, Aug 25, 2008
I have posted several comments and observations over the last
several years. Drawing on memory---
It is aggressive and I pull it out whenever I see it, not to
control it because it is here to stay but, to buy time until other
vectors can adjust. I am not sure when I first saw it but I am begining
to accept it as a harmless or perhaps beneficial member of the shaded
forest ground cover.
It is invasive in the sense that it moves in a rapid disjunct way
but, in my observation, almost always to relatively unoccupied ground.
So it is 'invading' underutilized real estate which could turn out to be
a positive. Anything that captures and fixes mobile nutrients, until
they are released by mineralization, will tend to increase the fertility
of a soil. Deer like it especially when capsules are well developed.
The dry seeds are responsive to static electricity, and drawing on
memory, the dry seeds were attracted by dry rabbit (aka hare) hair, dry
deer hair and dry woolen socks. I was motivated to check this because it
had leaped from the North Alton woodlot to the Kentville garden in an
apparently single bound and the initial North Alton colony consisted of
plants in a fairly straight line along a woods road, suggestive of human
and (deer or human) movement respectively.
Some European species are saprophytic and E. helleborine may have a
touch of this which would account for the shade tolerance.
Yt, DW, Kentville
Sherman Williams wrote:
> I am interested in comments on current Nova Scotia status,
> observations and thoughts regarding the orchid, Helleborine (Epipactis
> helleborine). A few years ago (2003), I first found some on a farm in
> Berwick (under white pine). I had never heard of nor observed it
> anywhere in the province before.
>
>
> Low and behold, in 2007 it showed up for the first time, all on its
> own, in one of my flower gardens in Avonport. It is there again this
> year, looking well and healthy. Last Friday I had it pointed out to
> me in Smiley's Provincial Park by Natural Resources person, Art
> Crowell; it was of particular interest to him because this is the
> first year that it has been noticed in the park.
>
>
> In the Flora of Nova Scotia (Zinc), I see it was first recorded in the
> province in the 1985. From comments of others with whom I've spoken,
> I gather that this orchid has suddenly been appearing across the
> province where it had not been seen before.
>
>
> In the plants I've seen, the flowers are small and not very showy
> (although when magnified they are more attractive), some references on
> the "net" even go so far as to say that it is an invasive species,
> which is not a characteristic that we usually associate with orchids.
>
>
> Here are two links to photos and comments about Helleborine (not Nova
> Scotian).
>
>
> http://www.osrbg.ca/files/EPI_HEL.HTM
>
>
> http://northernontarioflora.ca/description.cfm?speciesid=1003880
>
>
> Sherman
>
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