Friday, May 20, 2011

What was lost is now found

I have been searching for something since the spring of 1988. Yesterday I found it. Rejoice with me!
“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
Luke 15:6-10
Over 20 years ago, the first spring I lived here, I was walking in the woods, checking it out, when a sigh of disgust at litter escaped my lips as I saw a partially inflated balloon stuck on some foliage. I went over to pick it up and discovered:



























A lady's slipper! A native Indiana orchid! A Cypripedium pubescens! It is an uncommon wildflower, considered threatened in many Midwestern states.

My woods had been ravaged by the former owner who fenced it and kept goats. The goats were very destructive and we have worked hard to restore the woodlands. Every spring I searched the area where I found the lady's slipper and never found a trace. Yesterday, I was working in the woods, pulling garlic mustard, removing bush honeysuckle and marking tree starts. I was scanning every square inch of the woods, when I beheld the long-lost flower.





















Oh, pretty one, where have you been?

Now for a bonus photo from the adjacent woods:


























Now that's one giant jack-in-the pulpit.

1 comment:

The Sage Butterfly said...

Wow...what a find! That is incredible...and such a lovely flower.