Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Spiranthes porrifolia


Spiranthes porrifolia, the Western Ladies'-tresses, is one of three Spiranthes in Washington.  It is more abundant in Oregon and California, but is known from only one location in Washington.  We visited that location this summer with friends from Germany and found it growing where expected, but only a very few plants where in previous years we had found as many as sixty or seventy plants.  The location was very hot and dry this summer, more so than usual and earlier than usual and that may account for the lack of plants.  This species is taller than our more common Hooded Ladies-tresses, Spiranthes romanzoffiana, and has flowers that are more tubular and more cream-colored than that species.

June 23









4 comments:

Angel Mar said...

What beauty! He did not know the species. Here ended the S. aestivalis and September flowers other species we have, the S. spiralis. Best regards Ron

Ron said...

We have two other Spiranthes here in Washington but one I have never seen, though we are going to go look for it Friday. This blooms earlier than the other two.

Angel Mar said...

I hope that you see other species. Luck!

Ron said...

Spiranthes romanzoffiana is blooming now and we went with the Native Orchid Society to see it at two locations last Saturday. There were a hundred or more at one location and probably more than a thousand at the second location.