Sm’orchisbord

There is a secret place out beyond Leitch’s Creek, not as far as Ball’s Creek, that is a treasury of wild orchids.

Years ago, after discovering a field guide to native Nova Scotia orchids, I was instantly ardent to find Cypripedium reginae, Showy lady’s-slipper, ‘the queen of Nova Scotia’s native orchids’. Evidently there are only a few places in all of Cape Breton where this jewel can be found. I managed to uncover the whereabouts of one of these.

Over the years, usually around Canada Day, always with Jan at my side, sometimes accompanied by others I have returned to the secret place to see C. reginae,  but a few years had passed since I last paid homage—too long I decided this day. Off we went to renew acquaintance.

What is special about the place is that it has an underlay of gypsum—much to the orchids’ taste—but the mineral’s presence is not obvious. I do not suggest the site would appeal to every taste. It is pretty much a mosquito-infested bog, choked with low bushes, steamy hot on an early July morning. Gum boots are essential, bug spray too if you’re not fond of the attentions of biting insects.

Whenever I return it is always with a slight worry that something dreadful might have happened, that the orchids might have been liquidated in favour of a 4,000 square foot show home, or a hot dog stand, gravel pit, paintball park, casino or 9-hole golf course but no, on this day the site was as we’d last seen it and C. reginae flourished as grandly as ever. May it ever be thus.

I didn’t give a damn about the black flies and mosquitoes. With two cameras, including my little brand-new Nikon Coolpix P340, I went hog wild. (How did we possibly cope before digital cameras were delivered unto us? I have no idea.)

C. reginae is aptly named: for showiness, grandeur and sheer pizzazz it steals the show, no other orchid can compete. But that is okay, after we’ve had our fill there are other orchids to find and admire. Yellow lady’s slipper’s blooming period is over; we saw only dried husks of blooms that would have been spectacular a fortnight or so ago. But two Platanthera gems were at their peak: P. dilatata—Tall leafy white orchid—and P. hyperborea—Tall leafy green orchid.

Neither is perhaps as glorious at first glance as the ladyslipper but a close inspection is richly rewarded. I put the cameras through their paces and offer a few shots here to provide a hint as to why I am so strongly drawn to my secret place. You can probably guess that we had this little world entirely to ourselves: no one interrupted the reverie. I admit to having no idea why so many folks seem to prefer the shopping mall to a little patch of nature’s glory, but I am always highly grateful that they do.