Native Orchids of the Pacific Northwest and the Canadian Rockies (and Elsewhere): Orchid Hunting in the Cascades

Friday, June 28, 2019

Orchid Hunting in the Cascades

We made a long trip through Washington, Oregon and northern California recently, and spent some time orchid hunting. We looked for and found seven orchids in Washington, Epipactis gigantea, the Stream Orchid or Chatterbox, so named for its love of lake and stream sides and for its hinged lip, which moves in the breeze, and Cypripedium montanum, the Mountain Lady's Slipper. The Epipactis, though rare in Washington, we found by the thousands in the location we visited. The Lady's Slipper was also abundant and we found both the very dark form with the purple-stained lip (fma. welchii) and the albino form (fma. praetertinctum). In the same place we found the Mountain Lady's Slippers we also found Platanthera unalascensis, the Alaskan Piperia. At a third location we found Platanthera dilatata, the Bog Candle, and at a fifth location Cephalanthera austiniae, the Phantom Orchid and Corallorhiza maculata, the Spotted Coralroot, both red-stemmed and yellow stemmed varieties, along with a few stems of Corallorhiza striata, the striped Coralroot, both the ordinary variety and the smaller-flowered var. vreedlandii.