Featured Gallery

I had been asked to do a gallery of photos for the North American Orchid Conservation Center's website for 2020.  The original plan was a gallery featuring the native orchids of the Olympic Peninsula since the annual native orchid conference was to be held there in 2020.  That conference had to be cancelled because of the covid crisis.  I was then asked to do a gallery, also featuring the orchids of the Olympic Peninsula, but titled, "What We Missed."  The gallery was duly published and is now on the website of NAOCC at this address: https://northamericanorchidcenter.org/featured-olympic-peninsula-what-we-missed/.  The photo at the head of this brief post is also on that website and is of myself photographing Cypripedium montanum, the Mountain Lady's Slipper, in Blewett Pass, Washington.  The other photos are the photos featured in the gallery.

Calyso bulbosa var. occidentalis

Epipactis gigantea

Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata

Platanthera x estesii (a natural hybird of P. dilatata and P. stricta)

Piperia (Platanthera) unalascensis in situ

Piperia (Platanthera) elegans

Piperia (Platanthera) transversa

Piperia (Platanthera) elongata

 Piperia candida (Platanthera ephemerantha)

 Goodyeara oblongifolia

 Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis

 Corallorhiza maculata var.ozettensis

Corallorhiza mertensiana

 Corallorhiza striata var. striata

 Neottia banksiana

 Spiranthes romanzoffiana

The Olympics

 

 July14-16 we were in Olympic National Park for some hiking and sightseeing.  We visited a number of our favorite places including Ruby Beach, the Hoh Rainforest, Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent and Deer Park.  We did one shorter hike along the Hoh River and one longer hike along Lillian Ridge and down to Grant Lake.  It was not meant to be an orchid-hunting trip but we did find a number of orchids which I've posted here.

Epipactis gigantea (Chatterbox or Stream Orchid)

 

Piperia (Platanthera) elegans (Elegant Piperia)

Neottia banksiana (Northwestern Twayblade)

Piperia (Platanthera) unalascensis (Alaskan Piperia)

Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata (Tall White Northern Bog Orchis)

Platanthera dilatata var. leucostachys (Sierra Rein Orchis)

Heliotrope Ridge

 

2020 has not been a good year for native orchids, mostly because of covid.  We have not been able to do the hiking we usually do and many of our hikes have been in areas that were not shut down but had few or no native orchids.  We did manage a hike in the North Cascades to Heliotrope Ridge near Mount Baker but saw only three orchids, a Twayblade, which we saw along the trail and two Platantheras, which we saw at the traihead in a boggy area.

 

Neottia cordata var. nephrophylla (Western Heart-leaved Twayblade)

Platanthera stricta (Slender Bog Orchis)

Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata (White Bog Orchis)

Yellow Lady's Slippers near Lake Huron

 

In June we visited Michigan to see family and friends there.  While in Michigan we went with one of our sons and his wife for a two day drive along the Michigan shore of Lake Huron.  While driving some of the back roads and doing some hiking we were excited to see the Large Yellow Lady's Slipper in several different locations.  We had not seen many orchids yet because of the covid outbreak and so were thankful that we could add these to our list of orchids for 2020.

Orchids on Fidalgo Island

 

Because of the covid outbreak were not able to visit many of our favorite orchid hunting location this year.  Most of the state parks and national forests were closed until late in the summer and the city parks also.  We had to do most of our hiking in areas where there were no orchids and that were close to home.  We did manage to visit Washington Park in Anacortes in late May but by that time the Fairy Slippers were nearly finished and we only saw a couple of them along with a few Coralroots.

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis (Western Fairy Slipper)

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis (Western Spotted Coralroot)