Portsmouth Lady's Slipper Orchids

The accompanying photo is of a lady's slipper shoot in Portsmouth emerging through fallen needles littering a pine forest floor, their natural habitat.

There's a wooded area next to Saint Mary's Cemetery on Route 33 where Middle Road tapers down to one lane and crosses over the railroad tracks.  Lady's slippers grow there in abundance, but their establishment is currently threatened by property misuse.  I don't know who owns the place, but I'm pretty sure that whomever it is who's misusing the property isn't an owner nor is using it with the owner's permission because the misuse involves destruction and risk to life and limb.

What I'm talking about is that someone is, or a group of people are, riding vehicles over the property and damaging the landscape by making rutted tracks with their wheels.  I'm guessing that it's most likely young men on motorcycles because the tracks look like they're only created by a single-wheel-width wide vehicle, and what I've seen of the tracks seems to be created by wheels that are too wide for bicycles.  The reason I'm guessing "young men" is because the activity is the kind that usually interests people who are both young and male.

Now these people aren't just whipping around the woods tearing up the dirt, destroying lady's slipper habitat and riding rough over the little plants.  They are also digging pits and jumps to ride and jump over for daring stunts.  They are destroying some trees by bolting things to them.  I saw one fallen, dead tree - I don't know if it was pushed over - planed flat on its upper surface to give a bike an area of purchase for riding along.

This obstacle course is dangerous.  Perhaps these people are very skilled at what they're doing, but maybe they're not.  Are they professionals?  Are they supervised by professionals?  I can't believe that they are.  It wouldn't surprise me to learn that there have already been injuries because this riding track was there last year.  (This is the first time I've spoken out about it.)  In any case, if there haven't been injuries already, then it's probably only a matter of time because the riding course looks dangerous.  Someone could be killed attempting stunts there.

To tell you the truth, I resent the destruction to the lady's slipper habitat more than I worry about the safety of daredevils.  I'm irritated at whoever it is who's destroying the woods.  If they want to risk their own lives and limbs, then let them go ahead, but let's please have them do it somewhere else. Whomever it is who owns the property probably wouldn't appreciate either the destruction or the potential for liability.  The riders' families would be quite distressed if anything bad happened.

I've been passing through these woods for about eighteen years.  It's my go-to spot in late May and early June to see lady's slipper orchids.  I really love the flowers, and I try to never let a year go by where I don't see any.  Their seasons in our time here on earth are way too short and far between.

When I first found the plants here, there were dozens.  There were also some tracks made wheeled vehicle use, but my impression in the first years was that they were from mountain bikes.  There was no digging of earth, felling of trees or construction of jumps and obstacles.  The soil erosion wasn't so bad.  Things have changed since then.

Last year was the first time I noticed how bad the damage was, and I was dismayed.  I revisited the spot several times during lady's slipper season to photograph the plants then in blossom, and I feel pretty sure that there were very many less plants than in previous years.  Maybe half as many, but I'm not sure because I hadn't been methodically counting.

This year, when I first came back early in the month, I came looking for emergent lady's slipper plants and noticed that there were new jumps and obstacles.  This land is still being misused.

When I first returned, there were no plants recongnizable as lady's slippers.  There was nothing at all green under the pine canopy where the orchids grow.  I took some photos of the rutted motorcycle trails and their jumps.

I wondered about the lady's slippers.  Where were their leaves?  The indoor orchids I've seen lose their flowering stems, but their leaves persist to sprout new flowers later.  From what I can tell, that's not so with lady's slippers.  Their leaves seem to die off and disappear altogether.  So, when I first went looking again, I couldn't find any remnant lady's slippers.  There were none to see.  Had the motorcycles completely wrecked the place?  I went back two or three times in the first few days of May and found nothing.  In the next few days, I went once and found a few plants sprouting that weren't lady's slippers.

Tuesday, after staying away for about a week, I returned and found some.  Lady slippers were popping up through the pine needles.  There was a fair number of them poking through.  I only took a couple of photos because my trip to the place was an afterthought when photographing an eastern redbud tree on State Street, but the resulting photos weren't good enough to share.  I went back yesterday and found a nice specimen of a juvenile plant to use as a subject and got a number of shots.  The characteristic flowering stalk is plainly evident, which made it the best specimen I could find to show.

I can't locate any specific information handy on the internet to share as a complete description of the plant's life cycle, but, from what I've read and observed, I think that what happens is that the a plant bursts forth from the soil year after year near mid-May and then goes dormant by early summer, its leaves withering and dying for the season.  What I read is that the plant can live for twenty years.  What I noticed is 1) in early May there is not so much as a green lady's slipper petal to be seen on the forest floor, which indicates that the plants must be in the soil, and 2) in a couple of places new lady's slipper plants were bursting from the pine needles in what seems like the same exact spots where I had seen plants last year.

What a delight it is to have captured the image data to make a nice photo of a plant as fascinating as the lady's slipper.  I'm pleased with the work, and taking the interest to return to the place has taught me a lot.  The lady's slipper is a little less mysterious but remains nonetheless always as beautiful.

Hopefully no one malicious will deliberately kill the plants, which might happen if impetuous motorcycle riders are disappointed or if someone wants some kind of petty revenge.  Is such a thing likely?  I don't think so.  Is it possible?  We read, see and hear the news enough to know it is.

If anyone reading, or hearing of, this goes looking for lady's slipper orchids there, please watch your step.  There are many plants sprouting here and there - just not as many as before.