Ontario - Bruce Peninsular and Algonquin State Park

[Tony Willis]

We have just returned from a fortnight in Ontario where for most of the time we visited the Bruce Peninsular and the Algonquin State Park. The aim of the trip was to look at wildflowers and in particular orchids. It has been a mild winter there followed by a warm early spring and so we were fearful that most flowers would be over. In the event things were good  but we did run out of flowers by the middle of the second week and so returned for a spot of culture to the Niagara area.We moved up the Bruce Peninsular to stay at Tobermory on the tip before moving on to the Algonquin. On the way we visited Oliphant fen which was almost dry but provided our first flowers.

At the side of the road

Lilium philadelphicum the first of hundreds we saw along the roadside.

In the fen itself
Iris versicolor
Sarracenia purpurea
Calopgon tuberosus
Pogonia ophioglossoides
Platanthera dilatata

and as we stopped for lunch our first of what was to be a cypripedium which seemed to grow in roadside gravel and under every bush in large numbers all over the area

Cypripedium parviflorum/pubescens - a contentious point but local botanists see a complete introgression between these two and regard them as the same species

[Tony Willis]

another try

[daveyp1970]

Tony stunning pictures as always,you get a real sense of the environment through them.

[ronm]

Great pics Tony.

[Tony Willis]

Using a different browser hoping it hasa calming effect.

Still in the Tobermory area we saw various woodland plants

Pyrola asarifolia
Platanthara hyperborea
Corallorhiza striata
Unknown sp

and then in several locations but most particularly in a ditch at the side of the road just down from the hotel

Cypripedium reginae

[Tony Willis]

We then moved on to the Algonquin State Park whichis forest and lakes where most of the flowers had finished but still a few with the very last cypripedium hanging on.

Castilleja coccinea
Cornus canadensis
Maianthemum canadense
Cypripedium acaule
Kalmia latifolia
Corralorhiza trifida

and having left the area we found one
Lilium michiganense

 the background colour is becasue it is taken against a muddy river.

Finally two butterflies we saw

White admiral
Eastern tiger swallowtail

[ronm]

Just to avoid any confusion,
The White Admiral pictured is Limenitis arthemis arthemis. The UK White Admiral is Limenitis camilla.

[Claire Cockcroft]

I'm so glad the browser trouble was cured, Tony, because your pictures are wonderful.  Thanks for posting.

[johnw]

Tony - The unknown in your Reply #6 is Medeola virginiana.  Lovely little thing and abounds in my woodlot south of here.  Indian Cucumber and indeed below ground does resemble a white cuke - by no means an English or Burpless cucumber.

johnw - sunny & 25c, approaching Bermuda low which we may well get stuck in for some time.