Platanthera hookeri (Hooker's orchid)

Table Point Reserve is an unmarked site just north of Bellburns, Newfoundland. Besides a rough coastline lined with fossils, it provides habitat for Platanthera hookeri forma abbreviata, an orchid species that I had never photographed.

The geography is known as a limestone barrens, and that is just what it is. Not much grows on it except in cracks where vegetative debris can accumulate over the years. In these larger cracks, grow stunted spruce and junipers. In the smaller cracks. grow the more interesting plants including the orchids.

Finding them is not easy task. They are nestled between and under the limbs of those spruce and junipers. The ones I photographed were past prime bloom, but at least I can say I saw them...

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