Day 197: Today, I had the delightful experience of taking the Park's Plant Ecologist Arnie Peterson on a field trip to see Corallorhiza trifida. After visiting the first site, we decided to hike the second trail despite impending rain. I had a little trouble relocating the specimen, but after backtracking fifty yards or so, I spotted it. At both sites, I had a little fun with Arnie, stationing him within a few feet of the plant and challenging him to find it. At the second site, I had to give a few hints: "About eight feet away...one o'clock from the maculata..." before he saw it. On the way back down, I stopped abruptly and turned to face him. "We're blind as a couple of bats," I said. Met with a blank look, I pointed. Two feet from the trail was a cluster of seven with one single off to the side. We'd walked right past them! It was a huge thrill for both of us.
We made another stop before returning to Longmire, and were equally baffled by a composite which had been brought to my attention by a colleague. The flowers were closed, but her photos had given enough detail to rule out several things, but even the expert was stumped. I had to chuckle when Arnie said, "I'm going to have look at all my books with pretty pictures of plants for that one."
My last surprise of the day was quickly snatched and pocketed with no restrictions on its harvest. Two nice morels followed me home to be turned into cream of morel soup. Mmmmmmm, yummy!
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