(Pogonia ophioglossoides)
What a beauty I was greeted with on my recent paddle into our wetlands. These rose pogonias were blooming along all the swampy, sphagnum moss edges - stunning.
They seemingly 'disappear' after the flowers are done. They are a native bog species, and unlike many orchids, they're fragrant, as noticed by Robert Frost, in 1913.
Rose Pogonias by Robert Frost
A saturated meadow,
Sun-shaped and jewel-small,
A circle scarcely wider
Than the trees around were tall;
Where winds were quite excluded,
And the air was stifling sweet
With the breath of many flowers,
— A temple of the heat.
There we bowed us in the burning,
As the sun’s right worship is,
To pick where none could miss them
A thousand orchises;
For though the grass was scattered,
Yet every second spear
Seemed tipped with wings of color,
That tinged the atmosphere.
We raised a simple prayer
Before we left the spot,
That in the general mowing
That place might be forgot;
Or if not all is favoured,
Obtain such grace of hours,
That none should mow the grass there
While so confused with flowers.