Picture this: It’s a beautiful day in May and the weather finally decides to cooperate. It’s a weekend, the sun is shining, the temperature is in the 60s and you decide that it is time to take a walk in the woods. Leaf-out has happened and the woods are filled with filtered light that glows green as it passes through the fresh green leaves of the trees above. You can smell the damp forest soil and you pause to consider the delicious aroma produced by the decay of the leaves on the forest floor. You look down at your feet and suddenly see the smallest little dash of color; a feast for eyes that have had nothing but monochrome winter to look at for months.
You bend at the waist to get a better look at this beautiful, colorful thing, but you quickly realize that an even closer inspection is required. So, you lower yourself down onto your knees, then bend down even further for a proper look, and you find yourself face to face with a gorgeous wildflower named fringed polygala (Polygaloides paucifolia). For just a moment you pause in awe of this flower; drinking in the color like a desert trekker would gulp down cool water.
You might think that this flower is some sort of an orchid, which is fair because its asymmetrical shape certainly does resemble the structure of the Orchidaceae Family, but this is a very common mistake. Instead of an orchid, you have found a member of the Milkwort Family that has flowers that capture the eyes and enchant the mind. These small flowers, growing low to the ground, are simply gorgeous to behold.
The plant itself consists of a long stem that runs across the ground; semi-buried in the forest soil. Then, individual flowers are sent up vertical stems that have a cluster of green leaves at their tops. The flowers themselves have a remarkably complex structure, with the two large “petals” actually being more accurately identified as “sepals,” but the technical breakdown of flower anatomy will probably be a distraction to the simple beauty of these blossoms. Suffice it to say that the complexity of the flowers certainly explains the mistaken notion that they are some sort of orchid.
Far more interesting is the relationship between this plant and insects. The main pollinators of these gorgeous little flowers are bumblebees. The weight of a bumblebee landing on the globe of little spikes (which is the actual flower of this plant) allows the bee to lower the flower and expose the reproductive parts that are hidden under the “keel-shaped” structure that can be seen in the dead center of today’s photo. Thus, the pollinators are very specific for this plant.
Once the bees have done their magic, the seeds of the plant will start to develop. This, brings another very specific insect relationship to the forefront: a relationship with ants. It turns out that the fringed polygala produces seeds that are specially designed to appeal to the culinary tastes of ants. This relationship (known as “myrmecochory”) is built upon the ability of the plant to produce a little pellet of nutrients (called an “elaiosome”) that is rich in lipids, proteins and starches.
Ants find these structures irresistible and carry them back to their nest as a food source. This specific behavior is what the polygala has in mind because the colony of ants will offer an effective measure of defense against other animals that might eat the seeds. The ants have no particular interest in the seeds themselves, so once the elaiosomes are consumed, the seeds are moved into the colony’s garbage midden, where they can safely germinate in a nutrient-rich location. This is a textbook example of a mutualistic symbiotic relationship between plants and insects.
These flowers are quite small (only about 1 inch across) and they are supported by vertical stems that are only 3-6 inches tall. They like moist, acidic, shaded woodlands where ants are happy and the flowers bloom in the spring. An astonishing factoid about the fringed polygala is the fact that in addition to the complex flowers that have complex relationships with bumblebees and ants, the plant also produces another set of extremely small flowers that bloom underground and self-pollinate. This must be an insurance policy against a dearth of bumblebees.
I found these polygala flowers blooming at the very top of the Holyoke Range State Forest in Amherst, Mass. In order to get the desired perspective for the photo I had to lie down on my stomach and rest my camera on the ground. I was so close to the flowers, in somewhat shaded conditions, that I had to focus on the flower details while accepting the pleasant effect of blurring in the background. I also had to make sure that I snapped a photo when the flower was not in a spot of direct sunlight, which would have “burned” the image and made it look harsh.
This is the prime time to get out and search for Fringed polygala flowers. We are so fortunate to live in Massachusetts where State Forests abound. This means that you can easily find a place to go walking in the woods by taking a drive of about 30 minutes. Some of you may live within sight of one of these wonderful public lands and you may already know exactly where to look for flowers. Now you just need to go ahead and do it.
Bill Danielson has been a professional writer and nature photographer for 28 years. He has worked for the National Park Service, the US Forest Service, the Nature Conservancy and the Massachusetts State Parks and he currently teaches high school biology and physics. For more information visit www.speakingofnature.com, Speaking of Nature on Facebook, or the Speaking of Nature Podcast.