north american native orchid journal - at The Culture Sheet

Brown: TWO WEEKS AND 39 ORCHIDS IN WESTERN
NEWFOUNDLAND
stop, but well worth it.
• From an historical perspective you may want to also
visit L'Anse aux Meadows, site of the first Viking
establishment in North America, at the terminus of
Route 436.
The last area to be suggested is somewhat apart form
all of these. It is Tilt Cove on the Baie Verte peninsula. As
you begin your trek back to southwestern Newfoundland you
may want to revisit the Lomond Trail for later flowering
species and then take Route 1 east and eventually Route 410
north to Baie Verte. Not far from Baie Verte (which has a very
nice hotel and an excellent small mineral museum) is the small
community of Tilt Cove off Route 414. This area is most
unusual as it lies in a serpentine area and where there was
extensive copper mining. The town is at the bottom of a large
basin that opens to the sea to the north. Most of the town is
abandoned now after two major heydays in its history. A few
of the homes are still occupied and a small museum is also
open. But the real attraction her is the presence of Dactylorhiza
praetermissa, southern marsh orchid, a species found
throughout northern Europe. First though to be either an
escape or adventive, the species presence has been traced back
at least 100 years and may be truly native. It occurs in large,
showy clumps on the seepage hillsides throughout the bowl of
the town. Other orchids accompany the marsh orchid and
include Platanthera dilatata, tall white northern bog orchis; P.
aquilonis, northern green bog orchis; P. huronensis, green bog
orchis; and Spiranthes romanzoffiana, hooded ladies'-tresses.
By now your two weeks are coming to a close and you will be
heading south to Corner Brook once more. On your last day
afield driving south towards Port au Basque, watch in the
vicinity of Doyles for roadside meads with hundreds of fringed
orchises. Both purple fringed species, Platanthera grandiflora
large purple fringed orchis and its various forms - forma
albiflora, forma bicolor, forma carnea, forma mentotonsa; P. lacera,
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