Bog Jewel

What a beauty I was greeted with on my recent paddle into our wetlands. These rose pogonias (Pogonia ophioglossoides) 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.