Jersey Orchids

I consider myself a pretty good gardener and keeper of houseplants, but I have always had problems with orchids. I was surprised to read that New Jersey has 50 native orchids.

A steward for New Jersey Conservation Foundation spotted some leaves of green that stood out in the dull winter landscape. What was found was a cranefly orchid in a preserved farm in Salem County.  The landowner fenced the area to protect the plants from deer and the following summer dozens of stalks emerged from the ground with pale greenish-yellow, cranefly-shaped flowers.

cranefly orchid   
Photo by Dr. Thomas G. Barnes, USFWS on Pixnio

Cranefly orchids are different from most plants in that they don’t have flowers and leaves at the same time. Each autumn, a single green leaf with a purple underside emerges from the ground and stays through spring, enjoying a long season alone without competition for sunlight. If the plant can store enough energy, it will put up a flower stalk in mid to late summer, with irregular-shaped blooms resembling long-legged insects.

see some native orchids

Why wild orchids in New Jersey? We are in a unique place at the northern end of the range for southern plant and animal species, and at the southern end of the range for northern species. 

You won't find cranefly orchids in your garden center or potted up as gifts. There are "prettier" wild orchids such as the white-fringed, yellow-fringed and purple-fringed orchids, along with rose pogonia, dragon’s mouth, and pink, yellow and white lady’s slipper orchids. Of course, if you do find one, other than protecting it and taking a photo you should not try to take it home!

In fact, our rarest orchid is the small whorled pogonia which is federally-listed threatened species and state-listed endangered species. Small whorled pogonia populations have been confirmed in only three locations in northern New Jersey.  Where? We're not saying.

Native orchids have been threatened by collectors. Major threats to native orchids and other wildflowers include overabundant deer browsing, the spread of invasive plant species, poaching, and off-road vehicle drivers that destroy habitat. Loss of habitat and habitat fragmentation are also serious threats, compounded by destructive management practices and aggressive logging that overlooks the importance and needs of rare plants.

AS I discovered with my cultivated orchids, native orchids can also go for years without flowering waiting until they store up enough energy through photosynthesis to bloom.

Studying New Jersey's Rare and Threatened Native Plants

My Rutgers alumni newsletter has a story about ecologist and biology professor Jay Kelly who studies the Garden State’s rare and threatened native plants to find ways to protect and restore them. I think most citizens if asked about endangered species think of animals, birds, perhaps fish, but plants are also part of the ecology that is threatened.   (Yes, also 

Kelly grew up playing in the woods near his home in Middletown, NJ, and had an early attraction to nature. The Rutgers alum is a professor of biology at Raritan Valley Community College.

New Jersey’s 339 endangered plant species are largely still endangered due to habitat destruction, an unchecked deer population (responsible for a 70-80% decline in the forest understory during the past 70 years), and the growing number of invasive foreign species that choke out native plants.

American chaffseed

One of those plants is American Chaffseed (Schwalbea americana) which in found in the Pine Barrens. This hairy little plant with tubular purple flowers has been listed as a federal endangered species since 1992. 

How rare is it? Rare enough that by 2000, its entire Northeastern range was limited to a small stand in Brendan T. Byrne State Forest. 

Kelly began monitoring the chaffseed colony when he was a graduate student at Rutgers and discovered that this hemiparasite plant (relying on other plants early in its life cycle) preferred a nearby plant—the Maryland golden aster—for nutrients, and began cultivating it in a greenhouse alongside the asters. Those seedlings were transplanted into the wild starting in 2006 and are leading to some recovery in our state.

Another recovering plant is seabeach amaranth. This low-growing beach plant disappeared from New Jersey in 1913 but was spotted growing down the Shore in 2000. Kelly determined that human activities—particularly driving on the beach (which is allowed in Island Beach State Park and some New Jersey towns) and beach-raking—were the greatest threats to the species. With his students, they fenced off a portion of the upper beach at Island Beach State Park as a protected area and the experiment has led to a 600% increase in plants.

A new plant species he is focused on is bog asphodel, a plant that grows nowhere in the world but New Jersey. Kelly is conducting statewide surveys of many of the other 800-plus rare and endangered plant species in the state and working with the Partnership for New Jersey Plant Conservation to strengthen protections for rare plants.

bog asphodel   Narthecium ossifragum

Endangered Plants of New Jersey

The Fish and Wildlife Service website lists endangered plants and animals. There are 947 plants listed but only six listed species are believed to or known to occur in New Jersey.

Five of those are listed as "threatened" in NJ and only the American Chaffseed is listed as endangered in our state.

Endangered and threatened plants don't get the attention that animals do - which probably threatens them even more.

American chaffseed - USFWS, NJ Field Office

American Chaffseed (Schwalbea americana) is the sole species currently classified in the genus Schwalbea. It is an erect, hemiparasitic, perennial herb that is native to the southeastern United States where it is found in wet acidic grasslands. But the species has declined tremendously from its historical range due to fire suppression, and it is currently listed as "Endangered" by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

American chaffseed occurs in sandy (sandy peat, sandy loam), acidic, seasonally-moist to dry soils. It is generally found in early successional habitats described as open, moist pine flatwoods, fire-maintained savannas, areas between peaty wetlands and xeric (dry) sandy soils, bog borders, and other open grass-sedge systems.

American chaffseed is dependent on factors such as fire, mowing, or fluctuating water tables to maintain the crucial open to partly-open conditions that it requires. The species appears to be shade intolerant. American chaffseed occurs in species-rich plant communities where grasses, sedges, and savanna dicots are numerous.

American chaffseed is currently known to occur only in Burlington County, but the species formerly occurred in Camden, Gloucester, Atlantic, Cumberland, and Cape May Counties.

More at https://www.fws.gov/northeast/njfieldoffice/endangered/chaffseed.html

The other plants listed as threatened in NJ are:

• Amaranth, seabeach (Amaranthus pumilus)
• Beaked-rush, Knieskern's (Rhynchospora knieskernii)
• Pogonia, small whorled (Isotria medeoloides)
• Pink, swamp (Helonias bullata)
• Joint-vetch, Sensitive (Aeschynomene virginica)