Pink Lady's Slipper on the trails of the Mills Crooked Spring Reservation in Chelmsford, MA
Hiking on the hillside along the eastern leg of the main trail at the Mills Crooked Spring Reservation in Chelmsford, we found the showy and rare flowers of the Pink Lady’s Slipper.
Pink lady’s slipper is a wildflower in the orchid family. It grows 6 – 15″ tall with two large basal leaves at the base of the plant. It is easily identifiable because of its bulbous flower hanging at the top of a tall leafless stalk. It generally flowers between May and July, is pink to whitish-pink, and sometimes all white. Another common name for this plant is moccasin flower.
Like most orchids, the lady’s slipper is symbiotic as it has a mutually beneficial relationship with a fungus. The pink lady’s slipper uses a fungus in the soil to break open their seeds and to draw food and nutrients to its seed. When the lady’s slipper plant is older, the fungus draws nutrients from the orchid’s roots. Pink lady’s slippers also require bees for pollination, luring them into the flower pouch through the front opening.
Pink lady’s slipper takes many years to mature, living twenty or more years. Pink lady’s slipper usually grows on a wet, acidic forest floor with mixed shade in the eastern United States. The plants should not be removed from the wild because of their rarity and the near impossibility of successfully transplanting and maintaining the plant. New plants are difficult to start because of the need for the symbiotic fungi and their particular growing conditions.
If you Visit…
The 37-acre Margaret Robbins Mills Crooked Spring Brook Reservation was the first property purchased by the Chelmsford Conservation Commission in 1965. This reservation is located in West Chelmsford, between Crooked Spring Road and Graniteville Road. There are a number of trails on the property, with the main trail beginning at the parking lot on Crooked Spring Road and wrapping around the wetlands of the reservation. The trails on the property are easy to walk and bridges and boardwalks have been installed across several wet areas. There is a great diversity of wildlife here, including white tailed deer, red fox, beaver, muskrat, ducks, goldfinch and more.
Recent Comments