Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery
Cardinal Flower
One of my favorite rambles in the fields is in a wetland prairie—that's right, a prairie in the Shenandoah Valley: amazing!
Not far from my home, it is a preserve set aside by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to protect the last small portion of what once was an extensive area of wetlands in this part of the Valley of Virginia.
Sitting just below the approach to western slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains, this unique table-top-flat terrain is unlike the hills and valleys that are the typical topography of the rest of the Valley. Unfortunately, this unique landscape has largely been lost through the decades to agricultural and industrial development.
But, thanks to someone in the past, a few score acres had been set aside for posterity out of the original thousands of acres that comprised this special environment.
I've spent many happy hours wandering across this unique habitat. My visits have led to the discovery—for me, that is—of a number of lilies still flourishing in this marsh land that have become rare elsewhere in the Valley—Spring Beauty, Lyre-leaved Sage, and Marsh Marigold are a few.
It is always a pleasure to explore this wetland prairie, at any time of the year.
It was just a few days ago, in early September, that I enjoyed another most pleasant morning rambling across these marsh acres.
After a summer of rampant growth, the shoulder-high goldenrod, and bull thistle—above—appeared to be all there was to see: the fields were beginning the annual metamorphic miracle of transitioning from summer to autumn.
But as I have learned from previous visits to this area, patience and a little searching—bushwacking!—will often reveal new lilies growing right at my feet.
Thus it was these scarlet beauties have been added to the Galley!
A community of Cardinal Flower, a native member of the Bellflower (Campanulaceae) family, had found its niche in the wet spongy ground of this wetland preserve. (There are several other members of this family on display in the Gallery. Among the most interesting to me are following:
One is the American Bellflower, which in its blossom shape just doesn't fit the family name.
(It has a clapper, but it doesn't have a bell to ring.)
We found this native perennial growing in a small colony adorning the edge of a trail at Humpback Rock on the Blue Ridge Parkway, roughly 1,000 feet above the Valley. Not only at a significantly higher elevation, but also in a layer of thin, gravelly soil: a completely different environment.
Another
native perennial that is a member of this family is the
Small Bonny Bellflower; its blossom shape
is what one would expect from family name.
It has a clapper and a bell to ring!
We found it growing the same day as its cousin, American Bellflower, when we stopped at the Raven's Roost overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
It was flourishing on a limestone outcrop right at the edge of the parking lot. Sometimes we hardly have to leave our car to find a field!
The "clapper" in the above Bellflower images, and also easily seen in the Cardinal Flower (Second image below), is the stamen or pollen producing part of these flower.
Although no plant exceeded a foot in height, and was at first hidden by the taller stalks of thistle and goldenrod, like a visual klaxon, the bright-red blossoms of Cardinal Flower caught my eyes immediately!
Many insects and butterflies, as well as the Ruby-throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris), are attracted to these beautiful Lobelia .
But Cardinal Flower doesn't invite just any passerby to partake of its sweet nectar. Only those that can negotiate the blossom's narrow neck may take a drink. (See mouth arrow.)
One of these is the Hummingbird: As it hovers, this tiny flying jewel sticks its long beak and tongue down deep in the long throat of this beautiful lily.
A cousin, the blue-blossomed native perennial, Great Blue Lobelia (L. siphilitica ) ,however, has an open door policy for any and all browsing, crawling and flying lilies:
But it is bees that are attracted by the bright-blue flowers, and they find that this lily offers a bee-size door to its store of nectar. (See arrow.)
These cousins in the Lobelia clan both flourish in the damp terrain of this marsh. Botanists categorize them as hydric wildflowers.
It
is not only Lobelia that prefer a damp environment, one beautiful
example is the delicate
Turtle Head (Chelone glabra).
It was actually rooted in the water of a shallow brook.
(Other plants in the Gallery that flourish in a marshy habitat are Golden Ragwort, American Alumroot, Marsh Marigold, and Heal-all.
Not
all Lobelia, however, demand a damp habitat.
Another member of the family in the Gallery, the native perennial, L. inflata, can be found in open woods and along roadsides in dry, compacted soil that often contains lots gravel.
Known as Indian-tobacco—no doubt because the settlers saw Native Americans smoking it—it is along with its cousins in the family dangerous to ingest in any form.
In fact, the root and leaves contain toxins that can cause severe vomiting.
I am thankful that the same Jesus who said "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow...." is the One who created and daily continues to sustain these lilies: "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made." (John 1:3)
What a blessing to be able to enjoy all these miracles of Creation!
So, thank you, State of Virginia DCR, and also the Nature Conservancy in an adjacent preserve, for serving as good stewards of these gifts: the fragile, irreplaceable "prairies of the Shenandoah Valley."
Any thoughts, pro or con? Why not drop me an anonymous note at the Comments page?
OR
Go back to the Main Directory to consider more lilies of the field.