The Monthly Orchid—an introduction

The pouch-like lips of Fairy Slippers (Calypso bulbosa) are exquisite with their purple patterns and bright yellow hairs. No wonder fairies collect them at night to wear for dancing! (NPS)

Once again, I'm starting a series of posts about South Dakota plants—in part so that I can learn more about the state's flora (I'm still contributing to the online guide). In 2024 I wrote about trees, mostly the less familiar ones from the eastern part of the state. Last year I focused on ferns and fern relatives (lycophytes), and became a pteridomaniac in the process!

This year, after writing descriptions for sedges and rushes, and while starting on grasses, I considered doing a series about graminoids. But after a few weeks of struggling with species differentiated by tiny green structures, I came to my senses and went in a totally different direction—orchids! Their flowers are colorful, sweet-scented, diverse, relatively large, and highly-evolved.

Twenty-seven native orchid species have been reported from South Dakota. Some have large colorful flowers. Others have sweet-scented flowers, or flowers with unusual parts (e.g. threadlike or deeply dissected petals). But most of our species have flowers that aren't showy. They're small and subdued in color—white, greenish, yellowish, or brownish red. But up close they're gorgeous and obviously orchids.

Spotted Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata); the white lip with purple spots has yellow gobs of pollen hanging over it; lip c. 6 mm long (MWI).

Like almost all orchids (99%), ours have a combination of features unique to the family: a LIP petal (tepal), a COLUMN consisting of the stamen(s) and pistil, POLLINIA made of pollen grains, and minute SEEDS.

Parts of an orchid flower (Serena Aceto).

The LIP or labellum is one of an orchid flower's six tepals (three sepals and three petals). Five of the tepals are more or less alike, but the lip is quite different—in shape, color, size and more. It's also distinctive among species, and is used in identification (fortunately it's easy to see). The lip appears to provide a landing platform for visitors, and species-specific forms are thought to be designed for specific pollinators—the product of coevolution.

Stream Orchid (Epipactis gigantea) has lips with "tongues"; these move when the flower is bumped, hence its other name: "Chatterbox"; flowers to c. 5 cm wide (Dcrjsr).

The lip of Loesel's Twayblade (Liparis loeselii) is showy relative to the other tepals, 2 of which are horizontal and threadlike; flowers to c. 1 cm long (MWI).

Most orchids have a single stamen, which is joined with the pistil to form a COLUMN. Among species, columns differ in size, shape, color and function. In White Lady's-slipper (below), the top of the column presses against the lip, preventing pollinators from leaving the way they came in. Instead they must exit via a narrow slit in the back of the pouch. Inexperienced bees may take up to 15 minutes to find the exit, and may fall prey to crab spiders lurking within! (source)

Small White Lady's-slipper (Cypripedium candidum) has a glossy white inflated lip to 2.5 cm long; yellow flap with red spots is the column tip (MWI).

In most orchids pollen grains are amassed into POLLINIA, bound together by threads of clear sticky viscin. Pollinia are carried off by pollinators to be deposited (hopefully) on stigmas of the same species. The advantages of dispersing pollinia rather than pollen grains will be explained shortly (below).

Ophrys orchid with a pollinator about to get hit with yellow pollinia (ErwinMeier; arrow added).

Finally, orchids produce the tiniest of SEEDS, which number in the thousands or even millions per flower! This means that there are equally numerous ovules in a single pistil. Now we see the advantage of pollinia. Thousands or sometimes millions of pollen grains packed into a pollinium land on a stigma all at once, ready to fertilize the multitude of waiting ovules.

Orchid seeds are very different in another way. Most flowering plants (angiosperms) have double fertilization, producing seeds with both an embryo and a stash of endosperm to feed the seedling as it starts its life. But not orchids. There is no double fertilization, and the tiny seed contains no endosperm to sustain the baby seedling. Even the embryo is much reduced—just a small mass of mostly undifferentiated cells.

Seed of Autumn Coralroot (Corallorhiza odontorhiza), 0.2 mm long! © Freudenstein 2024, CC BY-NC.

When an orchid's capsules dry and split, millions of dustlike seeds are cast to the wind, seemingly with little chance of survival. And yet orchids are said to be one of the most widespread families of flowering plants, both geographically and ecologically! (Brittanica) Seeds and their strategies are what fascinate me most about orchids, far more than the showy diverse flowers. But this introductory post has gone on long enough. So we will stop here, and let the mystery be for now.

"Orchideae" from Ernst Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1899); see source page for names.

Sources (in addition to links in post)

Arditti, J, et al. 2025. Darwin’s prescient letter regarding orchid mycorrhiza. Lankesteriana 25: 83–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/y157kw10 

Brittanica. Orchid. Accessed May 9, 2026.

Freudenstein, JV. 2025. Orchid phylogenetics and evolution: history, current status and prospects. Annals of Botany 135: 805–821. https://academic.oup.com/aob/article/135/5/805/7901162

Wikipedia. Orchids. Accessed May 9, 2026.

By the Shores of Lake Lahontan

Camping on a different kind of beach.

Beachcombing through tufa, not sand.

Last fall, on my way home from California, I drove through northwest Nevada intending to make several brief geostops on the shores of Lake Lahontan. But it was so interesting and so curious that I stayed over two nights. By doing so, I was able to follow in the footsteps of one of the great pioneering geologists of the American West—Israel C. Russell.

I met Russell several years ago in the Mono Basin, not far west of Lake Lahontan. Guided by his spirit, I toured the basin seeing landscapes through his eyes and his words (Russell 1889). He was a terrific writer, and that was a time when geologists weren't constrained by today's conventions of scientific writing. It was wonderful to share his awe and appreciation for the novel geologic features he found.

Israel Russell (source). "his physique gave to the eye little suggestion of that capacity for sustained effort and endurance without which his more strenuous exploration would have been impossible." (Gilbert 1906)

In 1880, Russell joined Senior Geologist Grove Karl Gilbert of the US Geological Survey in a study of what were thought to be relic shorelines, across a huge area in western Utah. Impressed with Russell's diligence and field skills, Gilbert gave him his own project—a survey of similar features to the west in Nevada It would commence the following year.

During the first field season, Russell made a geological reconnaissance "during which about 3500 miles were traversed in the saddle" (all quotes his unless noted]. That winter he prepared a "Sketch" of his findings, starting with a description of the region—expansive, harsh, unusual in the extreme, and "standing in marked contrast in nearly all its scenic features with the remaining portions of the United States."

"The traveler in this region is no longer surrounded by the open, grassy parks and heavily-timbered mountains of the Pacific slope, or by the rounded and flowing outlines of the forest-crowned Appalachians, and the scenery suggests naught of the boundless plains east of the Rocky Mountains or of the rich savannas of te Gulf States. He must compare it rather to the parched and desert areas of Arabia and the shores of the Dead Sea and the Caspian."

Though unlikely to attract "the pleasure-seeker", the region offered a "peculiar fascination" to geologists, for two reasons. First, "the absence of vegetation gives such unusual facilities for investigation". Often not a single tree can be seen for hundreds of miles, and only the rare robust sagebrush offers any hope of shade. Rock and soil are well-exposed.

The barren range beyond the playa was one of Lahontan's many islands and peninsulas.

Second, "the character of the problems to be solved" was irresistible. This was an area rich in geologic novelties, Lake Lahontan being a fine example. Water is scarce to non-existent, and more than a few travelers have chased mirages, gagged on alkaline muck, and perished from thirst. Yet a host of scattered shorelines, tufa deposits, and gravel bars suggest Lahontan was once a huge freshwater lake sparkling in the sun.

Lake Lahontan in its prime, just 13,000 years ago (source).

Routes traveled [red lines] & areas surveyed (Russell 1885); source.

Russell and various assistants would spend two field seasons studying and measuring Lake Lahontan. They determined the elevations of basins (the old lake bed) and terraces on the slopes above (shorelines). They sketched ancient gravel bars and sand spits, and collected samples of the various types of tufa. And they surveyed and mapped nearly 8500 square miles. The result was monumental: Geological History of Lake Lahontan, a Quaternary Lake of northwestern Nevada; Monograph 11 of the US Geological Survey.

"Depth of Lake Lahontan at highest water stage" (excerpt, note depth measurements); source.

"A characteristic specimen of thinolite" [a controversial type of tufa]; source.

From "Map of Lake Lahontan" (c. 20 x 32 inches in its entirety). Note shaded relief overlying contour lines—subject of a future post.

During my visit last year, I toured a northern arm of Lake Lahontan—today's Black Rock Desert and "Lake" Winnemucca to the south.

Black Rock Desert playa is open to driving, fireworks, camping & more (I stayed on the shoreline above). 

From the Black Rock Desert, I drove south along today's Lake Winnemucca, and stopped at a large tufa tower next to the highway. Tufa is sometimes described as a porous limestone; it forms where freshwater meets carbon-dioxide-rich waters, such as springs, streams, and lakes. In his monograph, Russell described three types and partially clarified an "embarrassing" earlier hypothesis for thinolite.

Tufa tower along NV Hwy 447.

Tufa up close.

Lake Lahontan shorelines above today's mostly-dry Lake Winnemucca.

With that stop my visit to Lake Lahotan came to an end. It was much too brief, and I left determined to return.

"The bare mountains reveal their structure almost at a glance, and show distinctly the many varying tints of their naked rocks."

Sources

Gilbert, GK. 1906. Israel Cook Russell. J. of Geology 14:663-667.

Russell, IC. 1885. Geological History of Lake Lahontan, a Quaternary Lake of northwestern Nevada; Monograph 11 of the US Geological Survey.

Russell, IC. 1889. Quaternary history of Mono Valley, California (in USGS 8th annual report). Russell's report was reprinted in 1984 by Artemisia Press, Lee Vining, CA.