An open-pit mine is the latest
in unlikely locations to host a natural colony of wild orchids. But not for
long ... Once again, orchids symbolise the transient nature of landscape
change.
Privately-owned wetland Adirondack
Park in upstate NY is a wetland is formed of coarse sand left over when granite
ore was crushed to extract iron from 1900 until 1978. Bare sand was eventually colonised
by moss, lichen, grasses, sedges and trees, including willows, poplars and
tamaracks.
As part of this evolutionary
process, tiny orchid seeds blew in, and now the wetland is the proud owner of six
species of bog orchids, including millions of rose pogonias and grass pinks.
Experts report the variety of
fungi that colonise a plant’s root system and enhance its ability to absorb
nutrients is partly responsible for the colonisation.
But nature moves on, and the
orchids may be a fleeting botanical memory, for the already, an aggressive
non-native reed called phragmites is choking out other plants in the area. With
the inevitable lack of sunshine, it is expected they will decline.
A classic case of botanical carpe
diem.
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