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What's blooming in Bath, Highland
BY CHARLES GARRATT + STAFF WRITER
 | | Tis the season to be looking for large purple fringed orchid in the Highlands. Plants on Warm Springs mountain in Bath County were a bit past prime this week, but fresh flowers will be found in colder locations for the next couple of weeks. (Recorder photo by Charles Garratt) |
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WARM SPRINGS - Mid- June begins the blooming season for many of the prettiest native orchids found in the Highlands.
Large purple fringed orchid, platanthera grandiflora, is rare in the Highlands but can be found in both Bath and Highland counties. People who take a little extra time to check out a flash of purple flowers seen in a wet area near the top of the mountain might be surprised with a treat of seeing this beautiful flower.
Plants of this orchid growing in ideal locations can be 30 inches tall with over 100 individual flowers along the top of the stem. Smaller plants with fewer flowers are more normal, especially in younger populations.
Two other similar orchids can also be found here - small purple fringed orchid, which blooms about the same time as the large variety, and purple fringeless orchid, which blooms from mid- July to early August.
All of these orchids like locations that stay damp year-round. Some good sites to check are the heads of culverts where small streams flow across mountain roads and in the fence line of wet fields where they are protected from mowing and livestock by the fence.
Other orchids to look for in the next couple of weeks are pad-leaf orchid (round-leaved orchid) and grass-pink orchid, both known from sites in Bath and Highland. Pad-leaf orchid flowers can be difficult to spot because of the cream and green coloring, but the large spikes of flowers stand out in just a ray of sunshine in their woodland habitat.
Grass-pink orchids grow close to the ground in bogs and wet areas but are spectacular, especially when found in quantity. The Cranberry Glades in neighboring Pocahontas County, W.Va., often has many thousands blooming around the first of July.
While purple fringed orchid and grass-pink orchids are rare in the Highlands, sharp-eyed orchid hunters are sure to find new sites for these beautiful flowers.
As with all orchids, enjoy the flowers where they are since none of these species will survive transplanting.
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