Native Orchids of the Pacific Northwest and the Canadian Rockies

Goals and Plans for 2012

2011-12-14T15:21:00.000-08:00

Corallorhiza maculata var. ozettensis

Not much hiking this time of the year and certainly no native orchids to look for, but at least we can plan for next summer and spring and have been doing so. At this point our goals for 2012 are:

1) To see the five native orchids of Washington State that we have not yet seen. They are Corallorhiza striata var. vreelandii, Cypripedium parviflorum var. makasin, Liparis loeselii, Platanthera sparsiflora and Spiranthes diluvalis. We do not expect to see all these in Washington State, since some of them are rare to non-existent in the state. One site gets mowed every year and another is on private property and the owner will not allow anyone on the property. If anyone knows of locations for these in the Northwest, please let me know.

2) To get better habitat pictures of many of the orchids we've already seen. I worked quite hard on this last summer, but still am not satisfied with many of the pictures. This will involve revisiting many locations, but we are always eager to do that anyway.

As to plans we have the following places on our agenda already in addition to many other locations:

1) The Siskiyous in Oregon. We've been meaning to go for several years but have not yet made it there. We want not only to see the orchids of the area but other wildflowers as well, and the scenery including the Oregon coast. We may even get across the California border if we have sufficient time.

2) Some new orchid sites in the Canadian Rockies. We've backpacked in Mount Robson Provincial Park two of the last three years and day-hiked there as well, but we now have information on other native orchid sites in Jasper, Banff, Kootenay and elsewhere. Since we have a daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter in Edmonton, we usually get up that way in the summer.

These are musts, but there are many other locations in Washington, Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia that we have on our list of places to see.

Goodyera oblongifolia at Ross Lake

2011-11-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

This will be my last post of the year. The native orchids are all finished blooming now and there is not a lot of time for hiking either. In a way it's too bad that the last post has to do with an orchid as common and insignificant as this and not with something rarer and more beautiful, but such is life.

The Giant Rattlesnake Orchis is one we see on every hike, at every elevation, and in every possible habitat. It is around 30 cm tall and has beautifully patterned leaves, but very small whitish tubular flowers. These were photographed along the Ross Lake trail to Green point where they were growing everywhere in the woods.

Piperia elongata at Ross Lake

2011-10-22T00:46:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks of August we had our seven year old grandson with us. He had come with us from Michigan and we took every opportunity to do fun things with him, going whale-watching, visiting the local fair, and going on an overnight backpacking trip.

Knowing that he was not used to hiking, we hiked in only a couple of miles to a favorite spot on Ross Lake in North Cascades National Park called Greenpoint. There we spent the day after setting up camp and there also we spent the night in our sleeping bags and tents.

The trail we took followed the shore of the lake (created by Ross Dam), gradually climbing above the level of the lake and then dropping back down on a side trail to Greenpoint and the lake. It was there we found once again a favorite orchid species, the Long-spurred Piperia.

It grew all along the trail though usually only a few scattered spikes in any location. One of the last orchids to bloom in the area, its leaves had withered and if the 30-40 cm flower spikes had not been there it would have been impossible to locate.

Spiranthes romanzoffiana in Yellowstone National Park

2011-10-12T09:34:00.000-07:00

We visited Yellowstone National Park for a day on our way to Michigan to see family. We arrived at the west entrance early in the morning and were informed that road repairs were being done and that there was as much as a five hour delay to get past the road work. Since it would have taken many hours to drive around to one of the other entrances and even longer to get back to the highway we had left behind we decided to press on.

After driving several miles into the park we found the traffic back up ahead of us as far as we could see and after waiting for a while we found that every half-hour or so the traffic would move about a mile ahead. Every time we stopped after moving we got out of the car and explored the area, a very nice area of the park that follows the peaceful Madison River. We both had our cameras and thus passed the time.

At one stop we found this native orchid growing the grass along the river's edge and were quite excited to find it so far away from any location we had previously discovered. Later in the day, however, after getting free of the traffic and driving up the west side of the north loop we found the orchid several more times, in some of the geyser basins growing right in the area of the geyser run-off and later along the Gibbon River.

The orchid is one we've seen several times in Washington and that is my justification for posting it here. It is a small plant, usually less than 30 cm tall with cream colored flowers that are braided around the flower spike, giving the genus its common name, Ladies' Tresses. This particular species is the Hooded Ladies' Tresses, and is quite common in our area and further east, but always very beautiful.

As always we found the orchid growing in wetter areas, near streams, in run-off areas of the geysers, in wet, almost boggy meadows. And, once we knew that it was blooming in the park, we were able to spot it in wetter areas as we drove through the park.The photo of the plants growing near a stream was taken in an area we spotted from the car window.

Epipactis gigantea at Lake Crescent

2011-09-15T16:00:00.000-07:00

Epipactis gigantea is one of the more colorful and showy of our native orchids, but is quite rare in our area, though much more common to the south of us. We know only a couple of sites and make a point of visiting them, if possible, every year. To our dismay, we visited one of those sites at Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park and found that someone, probably a park employee, had used a strimmer on the site and that only a couple of stems of what is usually a good show remained. The area has a beach and is a high use area, but there was no reason for what had been done to this valuable stand of orchids.

In this location the species grows right on the edge of the lake making photography extremely difficult. I had to kneel in the lake and my wife sat down on a rock in the water to get pictures, but ended up wet anyway. Adding to the difficulty was a light breeze which made both the stems and the moveable lip difficult to photograph without blur. We managed to get some pictures by using a high ISO and shutter speed, and these are the best of our pictures. The moveable lip is the reason this plant is sometimes called the Chatterbox Orchid and its liking for wet areas the reason it is known as the Stream Orchid.

For another look at this species check out this older post: http://nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/09/chatterbox-epipactis-gigantea.html

Four Piperias in Olympic National Park

2011-09-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

Washington has five native Piperias and we saw four of them in Olympic National Park on August 3rd, one in a dwarf form that is unique to Olympic National Park and to the Hurricane Ridge area of the park. The five we saw were Piperias candida, the Slender White Piperia, Piperia elegans, the Elegant Piperia, Piperia elongata, the Long-spurred Piperia, and Piperia unalascensis, the Alaskan Piperia, in its dwarf form, P. unalascensis fma. olympica. The only one we did not see was Piperia transversa, the Flat-spurred Piperia, though I am sure that if we had looked longer and harder we would have found it also.

Piperia elegans, as the name suggests, is the tallest and showiest of these species. We found it growing in the area of Lake Crescent on the north end of the park, though only a few plants. It can grow to 100 cm tall and has numerous white flowers that stand out in the more shaded locations in which it grows.

Piperia elongata is named for its long curved spur. We found it along the Little River Road just outside the park boundaries, growing on a dry, mossy, south-facing bank along the road. The plants were almost always single and seemed to prefer the steeper areas of the bank on which they were growing.

Piperia unalascensis is the least attractive of the Piperias with its small green flowers, even though they are produced in abundance. Ordinarily a very tall plant of nearly 80 cm, on Hurricane Ridge it grows in a very exposed alpine location in a dwarf form that is only about 15 cm tall.

Piperia candida was a new species for us. It is similar to P. unalascensis and used to be included with that species. It is slightly more attractive, however, because its flowers are white rather than green and its tall spikes stand out among the surrounding vegetation. These were a bit past their prime.

Platanthera dilatata in the Canadian Rockies

2011-08-24T15:54:00.001-07:00

One of the joys of traveling in the Canadian Rockies from mid-June to mid-July is seeing the Bog Candles, so very aptly named, in every wet location along the highway. Driving the Yellowhead Highway we began to see them along the road north of Blue River and saw them again along the road from Tete Jaune Cache all the way to Jasper National Park.

They are often growing by the hundreds and even thousands in open boggy areas and their white flower spikes stand out like candles amid the surrounding vegetation. When one stops to examine them more closely their sweet fragrance is almost overwhelming. They certainly are one of the attractions of what is often a long and tiring drive.

We found two varieties on this trip, the short-spurred Platanthera dilatata var. albiflora (below), and the mid-length spurred var. dilatata, the two varieties often growing and blooming together. The latter is considered to be more common but we found both varieties in abundance. Neither seemed to be more common than the other, though we made no counts.

Platanthera obtusata along the Berg Lake Trail

2011-08-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

Hiking the Berg Lake Trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia on Monday, July 11, this was one of the native orchid species I was especially looking for. I had wanted to get better photos than those I had in my files and was delighted to find them everywhere.

There were a few plants along the lower end of the trail, but they were everywhere in the woods on the east side of Kinney Lake, often single plants but sometimes in large clumps. They are immediately recognizable by the single, ground-hugging, glossy leaf and the distinctive white and green flowers.

These are the larger flowered sub-species obtusata. There is a few-flowered, smaller sub-species that grows only in Alaska. This subspecies grows in woodland areas, usually in mossy, well-drained locations along the trails and even on top of rocks and old logs.

I've described them in more detail in a previous post: http://nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2011/03/blunt-leafed-rein-orchis-platanthera.html.

Platanthera huronensis in the Canadian Rockies

2011-08-04T12:38:00.000-07:00

Another orchid we found growing with the Bog Candles and Alaskan Piperias along the Yellowhead Highway was the very common and not very exciting Green Bog Orchis, Platanthera huronensis. In places it was more abundant than the Bog Candles and we even found plants that appeared to be hybrids of this and the Bog Candles.

The flowers on all the plants we saw were very similar, a whitish green with the sepals and petals forming a kind of hood over the lip. The plants ranged in size from a 10-15 cm tall to nearly 60 cm. The flowers were abundant especially on the taller plants, but did not stand out like the white flowers of the Bog Candles. We took plenty of pictures, however.

Platanthera aquilonis in the Canadian Rockies

2011-08-04T12:37:00.002-07:00

Another green-flowered Platanthera, not as common as Platanthera huronensis and slightly more attractive than that species is Platanthera aquilonis, the Northern Green Bog Orchis. Flowers and plants are very similar, however, and I always have difficulty telling the green-flowered Platantheras apart, though this has also to do with the fact that there are intermediate forms and natural hybrids between the species. In any case, these are the plants and flowers that I've identified as Platanthera aquilonis.

I've identified these as that species on the basis of the yellowish lip which is more or less lanceolate in shape (lance-head like), and on the basis of the shape of the spur which is pretty much cylindrical. These characteristics can be seen in the photos which were taken along the Maligne Lake Road in Jasper National Park, Alberta. These wer found growing with Coeloglossum viride and with Wood Lilies (Lilium philadelphicum) in rather wet areas.

Piperia transversa at Washington Park

2011-08-04T12:37:00.001-07:00

On a previous outing to Washington Park in the spring we had seen the glossy leaves of a Piperia growing along the trails. It was tentatively identified at that time as Piperia candida (Slender White Piperia). I made a mental note of the locations and determined that I would go back later in the summer to see the plants in flower.

I finally made the trip on July 18th and found the plants but discovered that they were not Piperia candida, but Piperia transversa, the Flat-spurred Piperia, a species I had not seen before. The leaves were gone now, as is common with the Piperias, but there were many more plants than I remembered, all in flower.

It was quite a windy day, but I was able to get some decent photos both of the plants and of their habitat. They were growing in rather bright, dry, but mossy areas with a light tree cover and their white and green flowers made then very visible, though their spikes were less than a foot tall, and the flowers quite tiny.

Listera cordata on the Berg Lake Trail

2011-08-04T12:37:00.000-07:00

Another tiny orchid, easy to miss, but blooming everywhere along the Berg Lake Trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park is Listera cordata, the Heart-leaved Twayblade. Its flowers are tiny but unique with their forked lip and are easily identifiable by that feature as well.

There are two varieties of this orchid, and the smaller variety which we saw here is variety cordata. The whole nomenclature thing is a little confusing since both varieties have both a green and a red form, both of which we saw on this hike along one of our favorite trails.

Platanthera chorisiana on Vancouver Island

2011-08-02T11:55:00.001-07:00

On July 21, four of us, Tom Nelson, a native orchid enthusiast from New York, Dr. Hans Roemer, a friend of Dr. Roemer I know only as Ryan, and myself, went to a high altitude bog on Vancouver Island looking for a very tiny and rare native orchid, Chamisso's Orchid or Platanthera chorisiana. The trip had been arranged by Tom, who was on a cross-country trek in search of native orchids

Tom had contacted Dr. Roemer, knowing that he had found this rare orchid on Vancouver Island some years previously, and Dr. Roemer not only agreed to take us out, but went out a few weeks prior to our outing to make sure the orchids were there. He is a botanist and conservationist with the BC government and an endless source of knowledge of the ecology and plants of BC.

I took the ferry across to Vancouver Island the evening before our trek and drove the last little distance the following morning to meet the others in downtown Victoria. Dr. Roemer drove us several hours west of Victoria and west of the town of Sooke and took us up a logging road to the a bog at about 2000 feet of elevation (700 meters), where we would be hiking.

While he and Tom were getting boots on and gear together, Ryan and I began exploring the bog right at the roadside and Ryan immediately found several of the plants we were looking for mixed with two other orchid species, Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata (the Bog Candle) and Platanthera stricta (the Slender Bog Orchis). These were photographed before we continued our hike.

Under Dr. Roemer's leadership we found our way through several miles of bog, that all looked much the same, but with which he was obviously familiar. Everywhere we wen there was evidence of bears, scat, some if it very fresh, and Skunk Cabbage that had been dug up and its roots eaten, but we saw no actual bears, though we kept a close watch for them, at least I did.

At the end of the trek we found an area around a stream where Dr. Roemer had previously discovered Chamisso's Orchid, and the location that he had pinpointed on his GPS. There we found around a dozen of the plants, usually just single plants, often obscured by the surrounding vegetation and scattered over quite a wide area, but usually on slightly drier ground and in rather protected areas.

We probably could have found other plants, but we had opportunity to take as many photos as we wanted, and when finished made our way back, stopping on a low hill for lunch along the way. Again, under Dr. Roemer's guidance we made our way back without incident, though I would have been completely and forever lost on my own.

Platanthera stricta along the North Cascades Highway

2011-08-02T11:55:00.000-07:00

On Monday, July 25th we traveled the North Cascades Highway through North Cascades National Park by way of bringin our son back to the Spokane area. We made a very slow trip through the mountains stopping often for pictures, but only saw two orchids, Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata, the Bog Candle, and Platanthera stricta, the Slender Bog Orchis.

The later species seemed to be everywhere from above Ross Dam down to the bottom of the pass on the east side of the mountains. It is distinguished by its narrow straight lip (hence the name stricta), and it inflated spur. It is not the most striking species, but when found in abundance its tall straight spikes of small flowers are very noticeable. These are some of the pictures we took.

Piperia elegans on Vancouver Island

2011-08-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

On July 21st I went with several others under the able leadership of Dr. Hans Roemer to a high altitude bog on Vancouver Island to find Chamisso's Orchid (Platanthera chorisiana), a tiny rare species of Bog Orchid. After slogging through miles of bog we found what we were looking for.

On the way home we stopped at a park on the coast, Witty's Lagoon Regional Park to look for Piperia elegans, the Elegant Piperia. We found it there growing in the woods along the water, but many of the plants were deformed, probably by a late frost, according to Dr. Roemer.

Leaving the park we also visited Dr. Roemer's home and found the same orchid growing on property. Again, the orchid was growing in the woods in a rather dry location. It was growing with another Piperia, the Flat-spurred, Piperia transversa, but I did not get pictures of that species.

Cypripedium parviflorum in the Canadian Rockies

2011-07-27T06:36:00.000-07:00

One of the main reasons for stopping in Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia and in Jasper National Park in Alberta whenever we are traveling to Edmonton is to see Cypripedium parviflorum in bloom. This year, however, we were a little late and almost missed them.

We stopped at three different locations. At the first they were completely finished, at the second some of the flowers were still good enough to photograph and at the third they were also starting to go by, but still decent, so we did not miss them entirely.

In the third location we know of only a few clumps visible from the road. In the other two locations they grow by the thousands and it is always a joy to see them. They are variety pubescens, the Large Yellow Lady's Slipper, distinguished by its larger flowers and faint scent.

These flowers were photographed at the second location near Kinney Lake on the Berg Lake trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park. There are thousands of these plants there in several different locations but only a few flowers left at the location I visited.

Piperia unalascensis in the Canadian Rockies

2011-07-27T06:34:00.001-07:00

Traveling along the Yellowhead Highway in British Columbia and Alberta we found this common species of native orchid in various locations, often growing along with other orchids. In one location it was growing with Platanthera dilatata, the Bog Candle, and in another with Platanthera huronensis, the Green Bog Orchis, and Coeloglossum viride, the Long-bracted Green Orchis.

Though it often grows in large clumps the plants we saw were usually just single spikes. They are easily identified, however, by their short spurt, many flowers, yellow-green color and small lip. They were almost always in open sunny locations and areas that were quite wet. The plant is found all across North America and so it was no surprise to find it here also.

Listera borealis on the Berg Lake Trail

2011-07-27T06:34:00.000-07:00

These native orchids are so small that whenever I am taking pictures of them along the trail someone stops and asks what I'm photographing. In fact on this hike I missed most of them on the way in and only saw them on the way out when I was keeping a closer watch for them.

The flowers are distinguished by the dark green stripe on the lip, but the plants are less than 15 cm tall and are usually hidden by other vegetation. They tend to grow in darker locations and are also for that reason somewhat difficult to find and even more difficult to photograph.

Listera borealis, the Northern Twayblade, grows all along the Berg Lake Trail from very near its beginning up to the shorez of Berg Lake and is in bloom over a very long period of time. I enjoy it but can understand the unenthusiastic response of some.

Platanthera stricta along the Yellowhead Highway

2011-07-27T06:33:00.000-07:00

The green-flowered Platantheras are especially hard to distinguish and admittedly, only someone who was very interested in the native orchids of the Northwest would even want to try to figure them out. Platanthera stricta, the Slender Bog Orchis, is distinguished by it inflated spur, visible in the first photo, and by its narrow straight-sided lip.

We kept an eye out for this orchid, knowing we were close to its blooming time, but did not see until late in the evening as we were on our way home. Then we saw it in abundance along Highway 5, the Yellowhead Highway, south of Valemount and all the way past Blue River where it was growing with Platanthera dilatata, the white-flowered Bog Candle.

In that stretch of highway it seemed to be everywhere, even though we had not found it at all on the east-west section of the highway, Highway 16, from Tete Jaune Cache to Jasper National Park. There it was replaced by the similar species, Platanthera huronensis, distinguished by its lanceolate (lance-head-shaped) lip, whitish-green color, and cylindrical spur.

Amerorchis rotundifolia near Kinney Lake

2011-07-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

Small but showy is this little gem of a native orchid. It is only 15 cm tall, and even where it grows in masses of hundreds of plants would go unnoticed because of its size, but a closer examination shows its lovely spotted, angel- or ballerina-like flowers.

Amerorchis rotundifolia is more closely related to European orchids than to our other North American species, but ranges across Canada and the northern United States and is often abundant where found, though it is considered "rare and local" by some.

In the area around the Kinney Lake campground, a relatively flat area of scrubby open woodland and where both Cypripedium parviflorum and Cypripedium passerinum are abundant, this species is also abundant, growing by the thousands and perhaps even millions.

Where we have found it we have also always found Cypripediums, but in this location it is so abundant that it is impossible to step off the trail without crushing some of the plants. Many of the flowers were starting to go by, but there were still many in full bloom.

Coeloglossum viride near Maligne Lake

2011-07-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

Driving up the Maligne Lake Road in Jasper Park in Alberta watching both for wildlife and for wildflowers, we stopped near a steep bank to take pictures of the Wood Lilies which were especially abundant in that location. While photographing the lilies and stepping carefully through a rather wet and boggy area we noticed some green flowered native orchids and made sure we identified them also.

They were both plants we had seen earlier in the day and in a number of locations, Platanthera huronensis and Piperia unalascensis.and though we took pictures were not that excited about finding them. among them, however, was one plant which at first appeared to be another P. unalascensis with flwoers that were going past, though something about them caught my eye.

One closer inspection it became clear that they were a native orchid we had not seen before and using our guide we soon identified it as the Long-bracted Green Orchis, Coeloglossum viride var. virescens. The plants were more of a yellow-green color, the leaves were glossier and the flowers more cupped and crowded on the spike than the other species we had seen.

The most unusual feature and the clue to what these were was the long tongue-like lip with the notch at the end. On the first spike this lip had turned black on most of the flowers and we still did not realize what we were seeing until we looked at one of the few good flowers under a magnifying glass. Only then was it really clear that we were seeing something new.

We were quite excited about finding them, and as as we walked along the bank further up the road began to see more and more of them, most growing up the bank a little ways and some in the shade of the surrounding shrubbery. In all we found about three dozen plants, some nearly finished flowering and others just beginning to open, but all clearly different from anything else we had seen.

We not only took pictures that evening but drove back up the following morning and took more pictures in the early light with the dew still on the plants.

Cypripedium passerinum at Kinney Lake

2011-07-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

Traveling through Mount Robson Provincial Park and Jasper National Park along the Yellowhead Highway on our way to Edmonton to visit family, we took some extra time and stopped in the area of the Berg Lake Trail in Mount Robson PP. My wife had a bad headache and stayed in the car to sleep while I hiked up the trail for about 7 km to Kinney Lake to see which orchids were blooming.

I saw fifteen different native orchids and varieties, but this one, the Sparrow's-egg Lady's Slipper is still one of my favorites and I was fortunate to find a few of them still in bloom at this late date. Last year we were a week earlier and they were all finished but a cold and wet spring has delayed everything in the Pacific Northwest, in this case to our advantage.

Many of these lovely orchids can be found in a couple of areas near Kinney Lake and I found again several very large clumps, but only a few flowers that were still perfect. Many had been ruined by the rain and quite a number were already pollinated and gone by. In spite of the mosquitoes I managed to get some pictures with the dew still on the flowers.

The flowers are on rather tall spikes but are themselves quite small, surprisingly small, I would think, to someone who had not seen them before. They are, however, very delicate and though the dorsal sepal often lies forward over the pouch, have beautiful spotting in the pouch and a lovely yellow and red-spotted staminode. The name Sparrow's-egg fits them beautifully.

Calypso bulbosa at Chiwaukum Creek

2011-07-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

On the same day, June10, that we visited Derby Canyon and Plain, Washington, we also hiked at Chiwaukum Creek near Leavenworth. We found and photographed many different wildflwoers, but were especially delighted to find the Western Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, growing in abundance along the creek. We found a lot of color variation including a flower that was almost white. It was also interesting to find them growing in clumps, something we had not seen before with this species. Whether growing singly or in clumps, however, it remain one of our favorite orchids and can be found over a period of four months as one moves from lower to higher elevations following the snow melt.

Cypripedium fasciculatum near Plain

2011-07-09T09:20:00.000-07:00

The orchid we were looking for near Plain (see previous post), one of Washington's rarest, was the Brownie or Clustered Lady's Slipper, Cypripedium fasciculatum. We found it, though only a very few plants which we carefully photographed making sure that we covered our tracks when we were finished, so as to leave no clue we had been there, by way of protecting this rare species.

Corallorhiza maculata near Plain

2011-07-08T12:05:00.000-07:00

The same day, June 10th, that we visited Derby Canyon and found the Mountain Lady's Slippers there, we also went on to the area of Plain to look for several orchids. We found Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis, the Western Spotted Coralroot, there also, and have concluded the orchid is nearly ubiquitous in the area of the North Cascades. These are a few of the pictures we took, though this was not one of the orchids we came to find.

Cypripedium montanum in Derby Canyon

2011-07-05T08:31:00.000-07:00

On June 10th, returning from Spokane and having stopped early in the morning at Derby Canyon near Peshastin, we hiked the ridge looking for wildflowers and especially the Western Peony, which had already finished blooming. We photographed some Western Spotted Coralroots and some Lyall's Mariposa Lilies and were driving away when we saw some Mountain Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium montanum) on the bank along the road. Reparking the car, we spent quite some photographing them before going on.

Corallorhiza maculata in Derby Canyon

2011-07-05T08:30:00.000-07:00

On June 10th, on our way back from Spokane, we stopped at one of our favorite places, Derby Canyon, near Peshastin, Washington. I went to see if I could find the Western Peony in bloom, but we had missed it once again.

Hiking the trail along the ridge we did find a few spikes of Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis, the Western Spotted Coralroot and both of us took pictures, my wife, as is so often the case, getting the better shots (the last two are hers).

As we were leaving, somewhat disappointed at not finding the Peony in bloom, I noticed just along the road several clumps of the mountain Lady's Slipper, and so no longer disappointed, we parked the car once again and spent some additional time photographing them.

Corallorhiza mertensiana at Hoypus Hill.

2011-07-04T23:39:00.000-07:00

Corallorhiza mertensiana, the Western Coralroot, has the most delicate flowers of the Coralroots native to the Pacific Northwest. They look like tiny purple (or green) birds in flight, and because they are so fine and tiny they are often overlooked.

We visited Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island June 4th and again on June 12th to see them. We found both the yellow-stemmed and purple-stemmed varieties and found them in abundance in the locations where we looked for them.

They are interesting in that they are almost always found in very dry locations under rather heavy forest cover with almost no other surrounding vegetation. They grow through the litter of dead branches and twigs on the forest floor and receive only a minimum of sunlight.

Because they are saprophytic they do not need the sunlight to produce their food through photosynthesis, but it is nevertheless always a bit surprising to find them where nothing else seems to grow. In the shade their purple color almost glows.

Calypso bulbosa in the Columbia Gorge

2011-06-03T14:11:00.000-07:00

Hiking in the Columbia Gorge in the area of Horsetail Falls we found the Western Fairy Slipper (Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis) growing in various locations along the trail. Interestingly, in the steeper areas it seemed always to be on the northwest corner of the outcrops. We saw it so often in that location that we began to look for it there and found it in places we had previously missed.

In those locations they were often half hidden under other vegetation (and thus known as the "Hider of the North"), but the other location where we found them was different. That location was in an open mixed woodland, quite level where the plants got only a very little bit of sun and where there was almost no other vegetation. It was in that location that we began to find Listera cordata as well though we we tended to find more of it in damper, shadier locations.

Horsetail Falls

Corallorhiza maculata in Washington Park

2011-06-02T12:35:00.000-07:00

I recently put up a post about the Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata, but found them again at Washington Park on Fidalgo Island, and found both varieties there, though in different locations. The differences between these two varieties, though, are negligible, and it is sometimes the case that it is difficult to distinguish them from each other. In this cae, though, they seemed fairly different.

The Spotted Coralroot (below), Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata, has a lip which is more or less rectangular. The Western Spotted Coralroot (above), Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis, has a lip which is more or less round on the end. Paul artin Brown says that they are separate in their flowering times, but in this case they were both at the peak of their flowering when I saw them.

The park is on a rocky outcrop of Fidalgo Island and has a one-lane road that runs around its perimeter. I walked the road against traffic (of which there was not much) about a third of the way and then took to the trails t along the cliffs and through the woods on the edge of the park. I found the first variety under the trees along the road on the east side and the second along the trails on the south side.

As can be seen from the pictures there definitely are two different lip shapes, but I really wonder if they are actually different varieties. Perhaps, though, I am just mistaking plants of the Western Spotted Coralroot with a less rounded lip for the other variety, but in that case it seems to me that the two so shade into each other that they do not warrant consideration as separate varieties.

I am not enough of a botanist, however, to know for sure, and certainly enjoyed seeing these unique plants even if my identification is not quite correct. They are remarkable plants, not only for their unusual colors, but also because they often spring up several feet away from where last year's dried flower spikes are still standing, and not always in the same numbers as the previous year.

Corallorhiza maculata on Whidbey Island

2011-06-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

On our recent camping trip son Edward and I made a quick side trip to the grounds of the Pacific Rim campus of the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies. We went to check on the population of the Ozette Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata var. ozettensis) that is found on their property, only the second known location for this rare native orchid species, Washington's only endemic orchid.

We found the Ozette Coralroots only just starting to put up their flower spikes, but found the more common variety of the species, the Western Spotted Coralroot (C. maculata var. occidentalis) in full bloom along with the Fairy Slippers (Calypso bulbosa). I had never seen such large clumps of them, nor so many of them in one location before. They were everywhere.

We found them all through the woods, mostly growing as a few spikes in each location, but near the edge of the woods and just a bit away from the road there were hundreds of spikes growing in dense clumps. We had time for a few pictures, somewhat difficult in the fading light and breeze, and the majority of these pictures were taken in that location.

As is evident from the pictures we found both the brown-stemmed and the red-stemmed forms of this species and in one location in the woods we found a single stem whose flowers seemed to be intermediate between this variety and variety ozettensis. Perhaps, however, that plant only represents more of the variation in this species and is not intermediate.

For more information on this species check my previous post on this blog which describes this orchid: http://nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/08/spotted-coralroot-corallorhiza-maculata.html.

Listera cordata in the Columbia Gorge

2011-05-25T15:53:00.000-07:00

Listera cordata, the Heart-leaved Twayblade, is a small, hardly noticeable species of our native orchids. We found it hiking in the Columbia Gorge on May 17th, but found it almost accidentally. We had seen Fairy Slippers (Calypso bulbosa) in various locations along the trail and had stopped in one particularly good location to photograph them when we noticed, while crawling around on the ground, that there were Listeras growing in the same location.

Later as we hiked back down the same trail we saw them everywhere, including the red variety, though we had not seen them going up the trail. We are always watching the plants along the trail, so they must be diminutive indeed for us to have missed them. I've described them more fully in another post on this blog: http://nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/11/heart-leaved-twayblade-listera-cordata.html, so will not describe them in detail again here.

The plants we saw were all less than six inches tall and that along with their location leads me to believe that they were variety nephrophylla, the Western Heart-leaved Twayblade, the reddish form being variety nephrophylla fma. rubescens. They seemed to grow for the most part as individual plants and not clumps, though always in damper, shadier locations. Interestingly, the red form (shown below) was nearly finished flowering, while the green form was at its peak in most cases.

Corallorhiza striata in the Chuckanuts

2011-05-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

There is a detailed description of this leafless, saprophytic species already on this blog and the photos there came from the same location as the photos here, but I'm posting this with emphasis on habitat and location: http://nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/08/striped-coralroot-corallorhiza-striata.html.

As the Coralroots go this is one of the smaller species, but also one of the largest flowered species. The plant is only about a foot tall in this location but the flowers are three quarters of an inch in size and very beautifully colored. This is definitely a species worth looking for and one that will be remembered when found.

There are a number of these growing on the edge of the Interurban Trail in the Chuckanuts, south of Bellingham. The trail is heavily used by bikers, walkers and runners, but the plants are far enough off the path itself that they generally escape damage, though I noticed when I was first there that one spike was broken off.

I counted about a dozen single spikes scattered along the trail, most of them half hidden in the surrounding growth and one larger clump of six spikes in a more open and slightly wetter area. There were more spikes last year, but Coralroots are notorious for their unpredictability and I may also have missed some.

These were found and the location passed on to me by my good friend, Marti Anderson whose blog is well worth following: http://meanderingwa.blogspot.com/2010/05/larrabee-state-park.html. I've been to see them twice this spring, but found only just beginning to open the first time.

Calypso bulbosa in Washington Park

2011-05-06T00:15:00.000-07:00

I've posted a fairly detailed description of this species and its varieties previously: http://nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/07/calypso-bulbosa.html. I'd promised myself, however, that this year I would concentrate on getting pictures not only of the native orchids themselves, but of their habitats and here's the first post by way of keeping that resolve.

Calypso bulbosa, the Fairy Slipper, is the first of our native orchids to bloom, and if one looks in the right places it can be found in abundance. This year I've been to Washington Park on Fidalgo Island, west of the town of Anacortes, Washington, three times to see it, though the first time I went I was a bit early and found only a single flower in bloom.

This is the variety found only west of the of the Rockies and in the North Cascades, C. bulbosa var. occidentalis, the Western Fairy Slipper. It is easily distinguished from the eastern variety, also found here in Washington, by the white rather than yellow beard and by the brown spotting on the lip. These differences can be seen in my previous post.

Some different views of the flowers first. The whitish flower is either not fully open or is well past its prime, probably the latter, since most of those that I saw this color were closing and setting seed. I keep hoping to find the very rare white (alba) form of the species, which has none of the purple or brown color at all, but all I find are these.

As for its habitat, it seems to prefer fairly bright locations under the trees or along the roadsides where there is plenty of moss, good drainage, and relatively flat ground. It generally does not grow in large clumps, but in scattered groups where its requirements are met, seldom more than a few flowers close enough to get them into a picture.

Hooded Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes romanzoffiana)

2011-04-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

This wide ranging species is found across Alaska and Canada, in the northern and western United States and even in Great Britain and Ireland. It is the most commonly-met Spiranthes in the Pacific Northwest. It is somewhat variable in coloration but is unlike any other species in this genus.

The plants are said to grow as tall as 50 cm, but where we have found them, at higher elevations, they have always been very short, less than 20 cm. The plants usually has quite a few leaves which are found on the lower part of the stem and which persist through flowering.

The flowers are a beautiful off-white color and have a sparkling texture, and are arranged in spiralling rows, like all the Spiranthes, around the flower stem. The plant likes wet, open areas. At Mount Adams, for example, we found it growing in a very wet meadow among short grasses.

Western Ladies'-tresses (Spiranthes porrifolia)

2011-04-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

This lovely species ranges from Washington south to California and east to Montana and Nevada. It is not uncommon, but is found in only one site in Washington state, where these pictures were taken. It is at the northern limit of its range in Washington.

The name, Ladies' Tresses, the common name of all the Spiranthes refers to the braided appearance of the flower spikes. The individual flowers are arranged in such a way that they spiral around the stem, giving a braided appearance.

This species is 30-40 cm tall in the Washington location, grows in loose clumps, and has three or four leaves at the base of stem. The flowers are creamy white and usually grow in damp areas with good drainage. The individual flowers are only 1 cm in size but each spike holds up to 50 or 60 of the flowers.

Slender Bog Orchis (Platanthera stricta)

2011-03-29T12:49:00.000-07:00

In the Pacific Northwest this is by far the most common species and the least attractive. Its plain green flowers are only about a cm in size and though abundant, as many as 50 on a spike, would pass unnoticed in most cases, even though the plants are around 100 cm tall.

We have seen this species with stems as thick as a man's finger and as slender as a heavy wire. It is identified by its narrow lip and inflated spur and ranges across the Pacific Northwest as far south as California and as far east as Montana.

Pad-leaved Orchis (Platanthera orbiculata)

2011-03-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

Platanthera orbiculata is a very striking species, very different from the other plants in the genus. It ranges in a great arc from Washington, Idaho and Montana, through Canada and Alaska and down into the Appalachian Mountains as far south as North Carolina and Georgia.

Like P. obtusata, it is usually found in woodlands rather than in wet and marshy areas. and is easily recognizable not only by its location, but also by its two large pad-like leaves and its flowers which are whitish-green and look like a dragonfly in flight.

The plants are 60-57 cm tall and the individual flowers, usually 10-15 of them, approximately 5 cm in size, among the largest flowers in the genus. It also blooms a bit later than the other Platantheras. We've found it only when the other species were nearly finished flowering in early August.

Blunt-leafed Rein Orchis (Platanthera obtusata subsp. obtusata)

2011-03-16T09:12:00.000-07:00

This is one of the easier Platantheras to identify since its 1 cm flowers are whitish in color and of a different shape from P. dilatata, aquilonis, huronensis, stricta and such species. It is also much smaller in plant size, rarely more than 30 cm tall.

It can also be identified by the fact that it has only one leaf near the base of the plant and by the fact that it is often found in woodlands rather than open marshy areas. There is a smaller, fewer-flowered subspecies, but that is confined to northern Alaska and Eurasia.

'The species is found across Canada and in the United States only in Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Massachusetts, and the upper Great Lakes region. It increases in numbers the farther north one traces it, being rare in the southern parts of its range.

Green Bog Orchis (Platanthera huronensis)

2011-03-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

Always found in wet areas, as its name indicates, this is one of the less attractive species in the genus. Its greenish flowers are a little larger than 1 cm and as many as 50-75 flowers may be closely crowded together on the stems.

This is one of the few species we have found growing at high altitudes, and because it is usually then growing in the open, the plants are quite short, about 10-15 cm, while otherwise they grow as tall as 100 cm. It is also very abundant and can be found in large numbers.

This species, too, is found all across Alaska, Canada and the northern United States. There are supposed to be some natural hybrids, but the green-flowered species themselves are so difficult to distinguish that we have made no effort to distinguish the hybrids.

This, I believe, is a very small form of Platanthera huronensis, only a few inches tall, growing in an open area at about 5000 ft in the Canadian Rockies near Berg Lake.

Estes Hybrid Rein Orchis (Platanthera x estesii)

2011-02-24T13:02:00.000-08:00

This plant is a natural hybrid between Platanthera dilatata var. albiflora and Platanthera stricta (both shown below). We have found it in several places where these two species grow together.

It looks more like P. dilatata than P. stricta, like a greenish-white version of the former species. The plant and flower size are nearly the same also as for that species.

Bog Candles (Platanthera dilatata)

2011-02-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

This is the easiest of the Platantheras to identify on account of its pure white flowers and its sweet scent. Its white flowers make it more visible than some of the other species, and its scent perfumes the air wherever it grows. It is very common, but always worth seeing.

We have found it on almost every hiking trip and along the roadsides in every mountainous area of the Pacific Northwest, often by the thousands. Along the Yellowhead Highway in the mountains of British Columbia, for example, we have seen it blooming mile after mile in every marshy spot.

There are three varieties of this species, distinguished by the length of the spur, which probably indicates different pollinators for each. Var. albiflora has a spur shorter than the lip, var. dilatata a spur the length of the lip and var. leucostachys, a spur much longer than the lip.

The plants can be quite short, around 20 cm, but are often much taller, around 100 cm. The 2 cm flowers are crowded along the length of the stems in large numbers, often over 100 flowers per plant. We have noticed that quite often the lip catches in the dorsal sepal so that the flower does not open completely.

There are several natural hybrids of this species and its varieties with P. stricta and sparsifolia. These usually resemble P. dilatata, except for the flower color which is greenish, rather than pure white. The only one of these natural hybrids that we've seen has been sufficiently different to warrant a separate post.

This species also ranges from Alaska across Canada and the northern United States as far south as Pennsylvania and Indiana, California and New Mexico. Varieties albiflora and leucostachys, however, are more limited in range, and can be found only in the western United States and Canada.

Variety albiflora

Variety dilatata

Variety leucostchys

Chamisso's Orchid (Platanthera chorisiana)

2011-02-12T22:41:00.000-08:00

Platanthera chorisiana is one of the rarest orchids of the Northwest, and also one of the tiniest and hardest to find. It grows in high altitude bogs and we had looked for it unsuccessfully in several reported locations in Washington and finally saw it for the first time on Vancouver Island.

The plants we saw were all near 15 cm tall with tiny green 3 mm flowers that do not open widely and are self-pollinating. The plants had 6-12 flowers per spike and tiny spurs that were shorter in length than the flowers, but with the nectar visible inside.

They were always in slightly shady and drier locations, often on the raised ground around the base of a tree and on the north side of the tree, They were almost always found as single plants and often were completely hidden by the other vegetation.

The plants generally had 2 or three leaves at the base of the plant and a slender flower spike, and seem always to be few in number. The species ranges from Alaska through coastal British Columbia to Northern Washington and is also found in Asia.

Northern Green Bog Orchis (Platanthera aquilonis)

2011-02-11T17:00:00.000-08:00

This is one of the green-flowered Platantheras, which I find incredibly hard to distinguish, both because many of the species are similar, but also because they interbreed and are, therefore found in many intermediate forms.

Platanthera aquilonis is one of the easier species to distinguish both because its lip is yellowish in color and because of its club-shaped spur. It is also one of the larger-flowered and more attractive species.

The individual flowers are less than 1 cm, but the plant, usually around 45 cm, bears many flowers, up to 60 per spike, and puts on a fair show as a result.

All the Platantheras have been and by some still are classified as Habenarias, and this species was once known not only as a Habenaria, but as H. hyperborea, now considered to be confined to Greenland.

We have not found this species as often as we have the other Platantheras, but when we've found it, it has been locally abundant, and always growing, as is the case with many in the genus, in marshy areas.

The plant ranges all across Canada and Alaska and across the northern United States as well and down into California and New Mexico.

I believe that this Platanthera aquilonis also, though the shape of the lip is quite different. The hooded flowers, the club-like spur and color of the lip seem to be diagnostic, but perhaps someone who knows these plants better than I do can correct me.

Alaskan Piperia (Piperia unalascensis)

2011-01-10T10:04:00.000-08:00

This rather common and insignificant species is one we have seen only a few times. It ranges from Alaska all across Canada and through most of the western and northern United States. It is tall, up to 80 or 90 cm, but the flowers are tiny, though numerous, about a half a cm in size and numbering from 75-100 per spike. They are a pale green color and are slightly fragrant, especially at night.

There is a miniature form (forma olympica) of this species that grows only on Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park in Washington. This plant is only 15-25 cm tall with fewer flowers, is abundant in that one location. Most of the following photos are of that particular plant, though the flowers are the same as the larger variety. In either variety the plant has only a couple of leaves which have often disappeared by flowering time.

Flat-spurred Piperia (Piperia transversa)

2010-12-30T12:43:00.000-08:00

Piperia transversa, the Flat-spurred Piperia is a smaller plant with small but unusual flowers. It's name refers to the position rather than the shape of the spur, and as one writer says, it would better be called the "horizontal-spurred" Piperia. The position of the spur is also the key to identifying this species which otherwise resembles the Long-spurred Piperia (Piperia elongata) both in flower and plant size.

The plants grow to about 60 cm tall, though many of them are smaller, and the individual flowers are 1.5 cm to the tip of the spur. The leaves, which lie close to the ground, are usually gone by flowering time, so that the flower spikes appear to belong to a leafless plant. The plant is native only to the Pacific Northwest and ranges from British Columbia to California.

The plant grows in open areas in woodlands often in very mossy areas, sometimes hidden by the surrounding vegetation, and is often found alongside the Giant Rattlesnake Orchis, Goodyera oblongifolia, though that plant blooms later. The flower spikes where we have seen them are usually scattered, not in clumps, and the plant from in our area from mid-July into August.

The flowers are white with a greenish stripe down the center of the segments and the spur is also tipped with green. The nectar is visible in the spurs when the flowers are examined closely, and the flowers are said to have a clove-like scent at night, though we have seen them only in the day-time and could detect no scent. They can number up to 100 per spike.

Long-spurred Piperia (Piperia elongata)

2010-12-29T11:10:00.000-08:00

Not nearly as impressive as its big brother, the Elegant Piperia, the Long-spurred Piperia nevertheless has a charm of its own. It is shorter than the Elegant Piperia, the plants we've seen reaching only about 50 cm. The flowers, too, are smaller, and are green instead of white, though the spur is longer and much more impressive than in the larger species.

The individual flowers are less than .5 cm, but the spur is about 1.5 cm in length and though slightly curved, is much very visible, often making a kind of criss-cross pattern on the spike. The flowers may number up to 75 or 80 per spike and are easily identified by the spur and by their green color. They are supposed to be fragrant like the flowers of Piperia elegans, but at night.

The plant has only a few leaves that have often disappeared by the time the plant flowers and that are almost unnoticeable when growing. We've found it growing in very dry areas on a disturbed slope in and among brambles, sea grape and other low growing brush and found it both in shade and in full sun. In shade the plants are quite a bit taller.

The plant is native to British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Montana, but is not common anywhere. When we've found it, it has been fairly abundant in those locations, but we have only ever found it twice. It also goes under the name Habenaria unalascensis ssp. elata.

Elegant Piperia (Piperia elegans ssp. elegans)

2010-12-21T17:07:00.000-08:00

Piperia elegans, also known as Habenaria elegans and as Piperia maritima, is an impressive species, standing up to and over 100 cm tall with numerous small white flowers, as many as 75-80 per spike.

I well remember seeing this species for the first time in a shady area where its tall spikes stood out like glowing candles in the dim light. It is rightly named the "Elegant Piperia."

It is not common anywhere in its range which reaches from British Columbia to California and east into Idaho and Montana. It grows in sunny areas as well as shade but is a shorter and heavier plant in good light.

The individual flowers are a little less than 1 cm in size, though the spur is twice as long as the rest of the flower. It is said to be sweetly scented, but I have not been able to detect any scent when I've seen the species.

Like the other Piperias this species has a few leaves close to the ground that have usually disappeared by the time the plant flowers. The flower spikes, then, appear to be some sort of strange leafless plant, but in fact have already lost their leaves.

Slender White Piperia (Piperia candida)

2010-11-30T15:52:00.000-08:00

We were in Olympic National Park on August 3rd, in the north part of the park, which is far too large to see in its entirety in one day. We had a wonderful and relaxing day poking around in areas of the park that we had seen many times before and in new areas (for us) of the park. One of the highlights of the day was our first sighting of Piperia candida, the Slender White Piperia.

Following directions given by a friend, we found it first just outside the park on the Little River Road which runs east to west from Olympic Springs Road to the Hurricane Ridge Road. There we found a large population of it right on the roadside, but the colony was past its prime and though we took pictures the flowers were a bit disappointing and we were sorry we had not come earlier.

Our disappointment was allayed by the fact that we found it again, this time in prime condition, as we were leaving the visitor's center at the top of Hurricane Ridge. We were in a bit of hurry to catch a ferry and I thought when I took photos that it was Piperia unalascensis to which it is closely related. When I looked at my pictures later I discovered that it was this species.

Piperia candida used to identified as unalascensis but was recently separated from that species and given its own status. The most obvious difference between the two is the color of the flowers, unalascensis having green flowers and candida, white flowers or white and green. Otherwise both species are visibly very similar in plant and flowers and easily confused, as was my experience.

The flowers of both are said to have a faint scent but I have never detected it, though I've tried. The flowers are around half a centimeter in size with a tiny spur and are held on a spike that can grow well over 60 cm tall. Some of the plants we saw on the Little River Road were that tall, but the plants we saw on Hurricane Ridge were much shorter, around 30 cm, but were much more exposed.

The flowers are numerous, and though I did not count any of the spikes, certainly must be as many as 50-75 per spike, this putting on quite a good show. The leaves were still partly visible, usually two to four of them, and in the more exposed areas were short and upright while in the shadier areas along Little River Road were soft and prostrate and in both cases were starting to wither.

Heart-leaved Twayblade (Listera cordata)

2010-11-15T09:32:00.000-08:00

The Heart-leaved Twayblade is a very small plant with tiny, but intricate flowers. With a bit of imagination the flowers look like a cloud of tiny green or red insects hovering around the flower spike and above the two opposite heart-shaped leaves.

The plant is supposed to grow as tall as 40 cm, but the plants we have seen have all been tiny, less than 15 cm tall. The flowers, said to number up to forty, have been 15 or fewer on the plants we've seen and are only about 1 cm in size.

There are two varieties of this plant, variety cordata, more common in the Eastern United States and Canada and variety nephrophylla, more common in the west. I have not yet figured out the difference between the two, but assume that the plants we've seen are the second variety.

The species (variety cordata) is very widespread being found not only throughout the USA and Canada but also in Europe and Asia. Variety nephrophylla, however, is found only in the western USA and Canada, from the Rockies west to California and north to Alaska.

Both varieties come in red and green forms which further complicates the situation. One cannot tell the variety simply from the colors of the flowers. Both are very attractive, however, though I think the red flowered form is the more appealing.

In the pictures, in both cases, the first green and red flowered flowered plants were photographed in the North Cascades and the second in the Canadian Rockies in Berg Lake Provincial Park. In the second location the red-flowered plants were also photographed growing among the green.

The first picture is of an plant with flowers intermediate in color, perhaps the offspring of the two different color forms. This plant was photographed in the North Cascades in Washington State along the Heliotrope Ridge Trail.

Northern Twayblade (Listera borealis)

2010-11-08T23:01:00.000-08:00

All the Listeras are small with small flowers, but if it is possible to have a favorite among them, this would be mine. Perhaps that is only because it brings back memories of several fabulous backpacking trips in Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia, but it is nonetheless the species in this genus that stands out in my mind.

The plant is only 10-20 cm tall and the 5-15 flowers, fewer in number than Listera banksiana, are only about a cm long. The plant has two and occasionally three leaves opposite each other about midway up the stem and flowers early in the summer, though we have found it well into August at higher elevations, usuall as single plants and often growing with Listera cordata.

The plant is found from Alaska all across Canada and in the northwestern United States as far south as Utah and Colorado. It is reported to be rare and local, but we have found it in fairly large numbers in the Mount Robson area, usually growing in damp shaded areas at the edge of woodlands. We have not, however, found it in Washington.

Northwestern Twayblade (Listera banksiana)

2010-11-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

This tiny and rather insignificant native orchid has usually been identified, and sometimes still is identified, as Listera caurina. It is found in the northwest as far north as lower Alaska, as far south as California, and as far east as Wyoming. It is said to be especially abundant in the Olympic Mountains of Washington, but is quite common throughout its range.

The plants we have seen have usually been from 10-20 cm tall, but is said to grow as tall as 30 cm. It has two opposite heart-shaped leaves about halfway up the stem and has a good number - up to 25 - small green flowers that have two darker stripes on the sides of the lip and that are diagnostic. We have found it blooming in open areas, especially along the trails.

Giant Rattlesnake Orchis (Goodyera oblongifolia)

2010-10-31T14:31:00.000-07:00

This very common native orchid would probably be overlooked by most folk since it is neither very showy nor very large. We have seen it on almost every hike in the Pacific Northwest and often in large numbers and at elevations that range from sea level to thousands of feet. It ranges from Alaska to Maine and Newfoundland and as far south as Mexico.

The 3-8 leaves, which hug the ground, are 10-15 cm long and form a rosette at the base of the plant. The flower spikes are as tall as 45 cm and hold their flowers on one side of the spike, often in large numbers - as many as 35 flowers. The individual flowers are less than 1 cm in size and are white and green in color. There are two forms of the plant, a rather plain green-leaved form, and a very beautiful form with dark green leaves and striking white reticulations.

Broad-leaved Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine)

2010-09-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

Epipactis helleborine, the Broad-leaved Helleborine is not really a native orchid but a European import that has naturalized all across the country. We've also seen it in the dunes along the eastern Lake Michigan shore in the state of Michigan, and it is found in many other places around the country.

The plant can be as tall as 80 cm, though the plants we've seen have not been taller than 60 cm. It is usually densely flowered with as many as 50 flowers each 3-4 cm in size. Plants growing in shady conditions, however, may be much smaller with fewer, more widely spaced flowers.

The few leaves are pleated and the flowers are ordinarily green suffused with pink, but there are plain green, yellow and white forms as well, as well as a form with variegated leaves. The plant blooms in August in our area.

The plant was first found in North America near Syracuse, New York, in 1878. Since then it has spread to 31 states and six Canadian Provinces, according to the USDA. We found these plants along a railway line suggesting one possible way in which it has spread.

The blog entry which describes our finding and photographing this orchid can be found at: http://ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2010/08/larrabee-state-park.html.

Chatterbox (Epipactis gigantea)

2010-09-28T06:48:00.000-07:00

Epipactis gigantea is rightly named the Stream Orchid or Chatterbox. In the one place we've found it here in Washington, we found it growing in one large clump right beside the lake, so close, in fact, that it was difficult to get pictures without getting wet feet.

It was also very windy that day and we discovered why this orchid is known as the Chatterbox. It has a movable lip, not unlike a little mouth, that in the wind made photography very difficult. The story of our finding this native orchid is at: http://ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/search/label/epipactis%20gigantea

The plant can be as tall as 100 cm, but the plants we found were only a little over 30 cm tall. The leaves are pleated and the flowers are around 3 cm in size, very beautiful and very showy. There can be up to twenty-five flowers per spike, though the most we've seen is ten.

The plant ranges from British Columbia south to Mexico and east to Montana, South Dakota and New Mexico. It is very rare in our area, but can be relatively common in some places. It is usually found in very wet areas and flowers during July and August.

Sparrow's-egg Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium passerinum)

2010-09-09T05:51:00.000-07:00

Also known as Franklin's Lady's Slipper, Cypripedium passerinum, though not the showiest, is the daintiest and most delicate of our native Lady's Slippers, as the name "Sparrow's-egg" suggests. It is also one of the rarer Slippers, found only in the north and there only in specific locations. The USDA lists it as being found across Canada but only in Alaska and Montana in the United States.

The plants are taller than the Large Yellow Lady's Slipper or the Mountain Lady's Slipper, and the flowers relatively small in comparison. The plants we have seen have been as much as 45-50 cm tall and the flowers about 10 cm tall with a lip that is quite large in proportion to the plant.

In the areas we have seen them they are always growing in and around scrubby trees, partially shaded from the full sun. They have also been in areas that are quite moist, such as the shore of a lake or a riverbank. We have found them growing mixed with Cypripedium parviflorum and Amerorchis rotundifolia.

There is said to be a dwarf form and we may have seen it, though it simply looks like a miniature version of the species. We think that it was the dwarf form because it was blooming when the larger forms were all finished. There is as well as a form with a pinkish pouch, but we have not seen it. Nor have we ever seen more than one flower on a plant, though it is suggested that they sometimes have two flowers.

Columbia Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium x columbianum)

2010-08-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

As the "x" in the scientific name indicates, this is a natural hybrid, in this case of the Mountain Lady's Slipper, Cypripedium montanum, which it resembles, and the Yellow Lady's Slipper, Cypripedium parviflorum. It is, in my opinion less beautiful than either of its parents.

In plant and flower size, it most closely resembles the Mountain Lady's Slipper and in the location where we found it was part of a mixed population that included that species but not the other parent (Cyp. parviflorum).

The difference between it and the Mountain Lady's Slipper is in the color of the sepals and petals which tend toward a yellowish-green, and the shape and sometimes the color of the pouch which tends to be shaped more like the pouch of the Yellow Lady's Slipper and can vary from white to yellowish (the yellowish color of the petals and sepals and a yellow tint to the pouch can be clearly seen in the last photo).

The parents are the two species pictured below:

Large Yellow Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens)

2010-08-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

Previously known as Cypripedium pubescens, the Yellow Lady's Slipper is one of the best known of our native orchids and that for several reasons. It is found in nearly every US state and every Canadian province. It is also one of the few native orchids that can be cultivated in a garden, though it must immediately be added that the plants can be purchased from reputable nurseries and there is, therefore, no need to dig them up from the wild and so destroy them in their native habitats.

There is a great deal of disagreement about this species, its name and its varieties. Some still prefer to use the older name, others disagree as to the number of varieties of this species. We ourselves have identified the plants shown below as variety pubescens, but never having seen variety makasin, which also grows in our area, we have to admit that this is an educated guess.

The differences are supposed to be:
1) the scent - var. makasin having a much stronger scent than pubescens;
2) the amount of pubescence or hairiness on the upper bract (the leaf-like structure behind the flower) - var. pubescens being much hairier;
3) flower size - var. makasin being smaller than pubescens;
3) flower color - var. makasin being more richly colored.
But many of these features overlap, making exact identification difficult.

The plants we have seen have been growing in open forest, in the flood-plain below a mountain lake, but always under the shelter of brush and small trees), and along a river or lakeside. They seem to prefer some shelter from direct sunlight and moister areas.

Flower color has varied considerably in the plants we've seen, the color of the petals from a pale greenish yellow to a brownish mahogany, of the pouch from a pale to a very deep yellow, sometimes with pale stripes, and of the staminode (the shield-like structure at the opening of the pouch) from a plain yellow to yellow spotted red. Flowers are around 10 cm in size with a pouch about 5 cm.

We have found them in several locations growing in large clumps, with as many as 50 flowers in the clump and scattered through the woods by the hundreds or thousands. We have never seen more than two flowers on one stem, though they are reputed to carry as many as four. The plants vary in size up to 60 cm and have four or five pleated leaves that make the plant recognizable even when without flowers.

Mountain Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium montanum)

2010-08-21T03:08:00.000-07:00

The Mountain Lady's Slipper is, in my humble opinion, the most elegant of the our native slippers. The contrast between its white pouch and purplish brown sepals and petals makes quite an impression, though its colors can make it difficult to spot in the dappled sunlight in which it grows.

This is another western native, found along the west coast from Alaska to California and eastward only as far as Alberta and Wyoming. We have found it in several locations in Washington and in one location in British Columbia, a location that is in danger of being bulldozed for roadwork.

The plant can be quite small or quite large. We have seen them as small as 15 cm, seedlings perhaps, and as tall as 60 cm. The flowers, measured from the tips of the petals are about 12 cm across and about the same from the top of dorsal sepal to the bottom of the lateral sepal.

The literature says that each plant can have up to four flowers, but two is the most we have seen on any plant. We have not found them often, but when found they are often growing in profusion and a search will usually turn up more plants nearby.

They seem to prefer well-drained hillsides and the dappled shade of small trees and brush, making them somewhat hard to photograph. In one location we have found them on a very steep slope and in another with the brush so close that it was difficult to take pictures.

There is a form Cypripedium montanum fma. welchii which has a crimson border around the opening of the pouch. This form we have found and it seems quite common, but the green-flowered form we have not seen. There is also a hybrid between Cypripedium montanum and Cypripedium parviflorum, but that warrants a separate post.

Brownie Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium fasciculatum)

2010-08-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

The Brownie Lady's Slipper, also known as the Clustered Lady's Slipper, is the smallest, the rarest and the least showy of our native Lady's Slippers. It is very much a western plant, found in only eight states, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado and only in the northernmost parts of Utah, Colorado and California.

The plant grows to about 20 cm tall and both leaves and stems are covered with short hairs. There are two rather large leaves, about 12 cm long, near the middle of the stem. The flowers, one to four in number (usually three on the plants we've seen), are held in a tight cluster on a stem that curls over under the weight of the flowers.

Cypripedium fasciculatum fma. purpureum

The individual flowers are about 2 cm in size and vary in color from green to a very dark brownish-purple, sometimes described as mahogany. The green and purple flowers are considered separate forms by some, but the flowers cover a spectrum of color between these two extremes.

The plant grows in dry woodlands and is often hard to spot among the surrounding plants, even when in flower. It blooms in the late spring, in our area about the same time as the Oregon Anemone and the Arrowleaf Balsamroot.

Early Coralroot (Corallorhiza trifida)

2010-08-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

The Early Coralroot is the most widespread of all the Coralroots. It is also the most insignificant in appearance. It is found not only from Alaska east across Canada and in the northern and western United States, but is very common in Europe and Asia. It is usually smaller than the other Coralroots (to 25 cm in height), fewer flowered (5-10 flowers on the plants we have seen),and in color a very plain green and white.

The flowers themselves are slightly less than 1 cm in size, and though they can be spotted purple, they are so small that one has to look closely to see the purple spotting. Like the other Coralroots, they grow in rather shady forests, though in our experience in slightly damper locations than the others. As the name suggests, they bloom early, often with the Trilliums and other early wildflowers, though later at high elevations.

Western Coralroot (Corallorhiza mertensiana)

2010-08-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

The Western Coralroot is certainly aptly named since it is found only in the far west of the United States and Canada, primarily along the Pacific coast from Alaska to California and east only as far as Montana and Wyoming.

In our experience this is the most widespread of all the Coralroots, growing from sea level to much higher elevations and often found in profusion where it is growing. We have seen it by the thousands in several locations.

It generally grows in rather dark forests where little else is growing on the forest floor and amid a litter of dead branches and decaying trunks. Like all Coralroots it is leafless and saprophytic or more accurately, mycotrophic, depending on a fungus for its nourishment.

The usual color form has purplish stems and flowers that are bird-like in form. The stems are generally about 45 cm tall and carry up to 35 flowers. The lips vary from a solid purple to a purple and white. that appears to be striped.

We have found two color forms, forma albolabia, which has no purple color at all, and forma pallida, which has yellowish-white stems and flowers, but retains the purple. This latter color form is quite common, but stands out on the forest floor even more dramatically than the normally colored form.

C. mertensiana fma. albolabia

C. mertensiana fma. pallida (below also)

Striped Coralroot (Corallorhiza striata var. striata)

2010-08-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

The striped Coralroot has the largest flowers and is the most beautiful of all the Coralroots. There is a less showy variety, Vreeland's Striped Coralroot, Corallorhiza striata var. vreelandii, found in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, but it is very rare even in those states and one of the native orchids I have not seen.

The showier variety, shown here, is found across Canada from British Columbia to Newfoundland and as far south in the United States as California, Texas and New York. The flowers are about 1.5 cm in size, the plants about 30 cm tall and they can have as many as 30 flowers per spike.

Like all the other Coralroots, this species is leafless and saprophytic, living off decaying matter in the soil and obtaining nourishment through a fungus. There are several color forms, both a tan form and a yellowish form, but these are also quite rare.

Ozette Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata var. ozettensis)

2010-08-03T08:46:00.000-07:00

The Ozette Coralroot is considered to be a variety of the Spotted Coralroot, the species posted in the previous entry. It is so different from the Spotted Coralroot, however, and so rare, that I'm posting this description separately. It deserves a special entry, too, because it is the only native orchid that is unique (indigenous) to the State of Washington.

This rare orchid was discovered in 1967 and first described in 2001 by Mr. Ed Tisch of Port Angeles, Washington. It was found in one location in Clallam County on the Olympic Peninsula in the coastal forests of that county. It was thought, at the time of its discovery, to be confined to that one county, but has since been discovered in several locations across the water on Whidbey Island. It was discovered there in 2006 by a young lady named Chelsea Kieffer while studying at the Pacific Rim campus of the Au Sable Institute on that island. She found it in the woods on the property of the Institute. That is where we've seen it.

This plant is from eight inches to two feet tall and has bright reddish-purple stems. The plants we've seen had from six to twenty-six flowers that completely lacked the spotting of the other two varieties, the Western Coralroot and the Western Spotted Coralroot. The flowers were the same color as the stem on the exterior, but opened a greenish color on the inside with green petals
lightly striped in red-purple, a white lip, and a yellow column.

As with all the other Coralroots, this plant is leafless, sending up its flowering stems in June and July, and leaving no trace of itself except dead spikes when finished. It is thought to be saprophytic, getting its nourishment not through photosynthesis, but from the roots of other plants and by means of a soil fungus. Its root looks like a piece of coral, hence its name. This unique plant was named after the Ozette Indians who were the original occupants of the land on which it was first found. I am not a taxonomist and have to trust the judgment of those who know better than I, but this plant looks so different from the other Western Coralroots, that it is hard to believe they are not entirely different species. It is considered “of special concern” by the USDA.

Interesting facts:
(1) All the colonies discovered in Clallam County on the Olympic Peninsula were found at about 300 meters from the ocean.
(2) In his book, Paul Martin Brown says that this variety is always found in pure colonies, but the plants on Whidbey Island were not in such colonies. They were growing among and with other plants of the Western Spotted Coralroot.

Note: much of this article has been published by the American Orchid Society on its web page at: Ozette Coralroot.

Spotted Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata)

2010-08-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

There are eight species and varieties of Coralroots that grow in our area and one that is indigenous (unique) to Western Washington, the Ozette Coralroot. Two of the others are quite rare and these two we have not seen.

Coralroots are named for their large coral-like rhizomes, undergrounds "stems" that produce both roots and shoots. The Coralroots all live off fungi in the soil (they are mycotrophic), produce little or no chlorophyll, and are leafless.

The Spotted Coralroot is the most common of all the species in North America, though one other species, the Early Coralroot, is found also in Europe and is very common there. In its two varieties, the Spotted Coralroot is found in Alaska, across Canada from British Columbia to Newfoundland, and across most of the United States with exception of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.

Since these plants feed off soil fungi and have little or no chlorophyll, they are often found on the forest floor in rather dark areas. Though we have found them in brighter areas also, we have seen them in areas where almost no light penetrates the forest canopy and where there is nothing else growing.

There are two very similar varieties of this orchid distinguished only by the shape of the lip and the flowering time, though they often grow together in the same areas. Both varieties have at least several different color forms, some of which are quite rare.

These two varieties both varieties grow to about 50 cm tall and both have numerous flowers, as many as thirty on a spike. The flowers, however, are quite small, 5-8 millimeters each.

The later flowering and more common variety is Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata. It is easily distinguished by the side lobes of the lip which are parallel. The stem color and flower color vary from tan to red.

The other variety, Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis, the Western Spotted Coralroot, is really misnamed, since it ranges as far as eastern Canada and the eastern United States and as far south as Virginia. It is distinguished by a lip with a wider, almost circular, mid-lobe.

There is also a third variety of Corallorhiza maculata, variety ozettensis, but this variety is so unusual and so rare that I'll post it as a separate article.

Long-bracted Green Orchis (Coeloglossum viride var. virescens)

2010-07-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

The Long-bracted Green Orchis is named for the bracts under each flower which are longer than the flowers and give the flower spikes a rather feathery appearance. The genus is found around the world in the Northern Hemisphere and has only the one species, though there are several varieties, two of them found in the Pacific Northwest, though one only in very limited alpine areas.

This variety is the more common in North America (the other is found only in Alaska, but is very common in Europe and Asia). It is considered "rare to local" in the areas where it can be found, but this may be due in part to the fact that unless seen close-up, it resembles many of the green-flowered Platantheras, and when we found it was actually growing among them.

We had stopped along the road to take pictures of a field of Wood Lilies and had seen some Platanthera huronensis and Piperia unalascensis growing nearby. Only when we looked closely did we notice the Coeloglossums growing among them. Interestingly, the other species were found in a wet area at the foot of the bank while the Coeloglossums tended to grow a little up the bank and drier.

The long distinctively notched lip makes this species immediately recognizable. The flowers are green and the flower parts form a sort of hood above the lip. The flowers were quite closely arranged on the spikes and in the case of the plants we saw had about thirty flowers per spike. The plants were about 10-25 cm in height and the flowers about 1.5 cm long.

The species ranges from Alaska to Newfoundland and south to Washington, New Mexico, Iowa and North Carolina. We found it in Alberta in Jasper National Park along the Maligne Lake Road in July, though the information we have indicates that the flowers appear to be perfect long after they have been pollinated and that certainly appeared to be case on some flower spikes.

Phantom Orchid (Cephalanthera austiniae)

2010-07-28T05:29:00.000-07:00

The Phantom Orchid is certainly the most unusual of our native orchids. It is the only North American species from the genus Cephalanthera, but even among the other species of that genus it is unique. It is saprophytic, living off decaying material in the soil, and completely without chlorophyll.

Stem, leaves and flowers are bone white, with only a spot of yellow on the lips of the flowers. The leaves are very small and the plant is mostly stem and flowers, growing as tall as 60 cm with flowers that are quite large, about 3 cm. All this adds us to quite show when the plants are in flower.

They grow on the forest floor, often in very open, but heavily shaded and dark areas, and the white plants make a dramatic show that cannot be missed, and that has earned this species its common name. Typical was a location we visited recently and at which the following photos were taken.

We were on the Washington side of the Columbia River Valley and had followed an old Forest Service road into a dry, mature woodland where there was almost no underbrush. Almost as soon as we entered the shady woods we could see the Phantom Orchid growing on the hillside above us mostly as individual plants scattered over a large area.

Two species of Coralroots were growing in the same area, though both were finished flowering. This was no surprise since they too are saprophytes and prefer similar conditions. The Phantom Orchids, however, were much more visible than the Coralroots.

Fairy Slipper (Calypso bulbosa)

2010-07-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

Calypso bulbosa, the Fairy-slipper orchid, is without doubt one of our most beautiful natives and is found from Alaska all the way across Canada and in the northernmost United States, including the Pacific Northwest, the upper Great Lakes area and northern New England.

The plant is almost always found in rather dark forests where its bright pink color stands out and is easily seen, even though the plant and flower are very small, the plant usually about 20 cm or less and the flowers about 3 cm.

There are some variations, but the plant is usually single flowered and usually has a single leaf that persists after the flower is finished. It is relatively common in our area and we have almost always found it when hiking in the spring in the North Cascades.

It's common name is Hider-of-the-North, a very appropriate name both because of its small size and because it is so small,but when it is happy it will often form very large stands

There are actually four varieties of this orchid, one variety found only in Japan and another found across northern Eurasia. The other two are found in North America, varieties americana and occidentalis.

Calypso bulbosa var. americana, the Eastern Fairy Slipper, is the more common variety and the only variety found east of the Rocky Mountains. It is easily distinguished by its yellow beard and white lip.

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, the Western Fairy Slipper, is found only in the Cascade mountain range and west of the Rockies in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Montana. It has a white beard and a lip that heavily spotted with brownish-purple. It is, in our area,by far the more common variety and the one we have seen most often.

Small Round-leaf Orchis (Amerorchis rotundifolia)

2010-07-26T11:42:00.000-07:00

The Small Round-leaf Orchis was originally classified as Orchis rotundifolia since it is most closely related to that European genus, but was reclassified in 1968. It is the only species in the genus Amerorchis and has no other close North American relatives.

This plant ranges from Alaska through Canada to Greenland, and south into the United States into Montana and Wyoming and from Minnesota eastward to Maine. It is not found in Washington state.

The plant is reported to grow to 35 cm tall, though the plants we have seen have all been much shorter, the tallest about 18 cm. The delightful bird-like or angel-like flowers are about 1-1.5 cm tall.

There are various color forms, including a pure white form, but we have seen none of these and they are quite rare. The usual form, however, is quite abundant in some locations and we have seen them by the thousands in one protected area.

We've found this orchid twice, both times in British Columbia. We saw it first near Tete Jaune Cache off an access road where it was growing with Cypripedium parviflorum and Platanthera huronensis.

The other location is in Mount Robson Provincial Park, where it was growing just beyond the bridge south of the Kinney lake campground and along the lake and on the edge of the woods past the bridge and then again along the river in the Whitehorn campground and north to White Falls.

Hunting Native Orchids

2010-07-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

I’ve never been a hunter and never've had either the time or inclination to become one, but last year that all changed. I've discovered the thrill of the chase, of the shot and of having a trophy to show for it all. I've found out the thrill of hunting native orchids and of shooting them with a camera. I'd grown exotic tropical orchids for over thirty years and will continue to do so as long as I'm able. I’ve grown them on windowsills, under lights, in wardian cases, outdoors, and in a greenhouse. Their endless variety and stunning beauty are things I'll never tire of, but in the last few years I’ve found the search for native orchids to be as exciting and wonderful as seeing the blooms on a new tropical species or hybrid.

My family and I have done a lot of hiking, and have always enjoyed the wildflowers including the native orchids. Over the years, while hiking, we had opportunity to see and photograph a number of them, but had never actively searched for them. In 2008, however, my wife, my youngest son and I saw an extraordinary number of native orchids on our hikes in the North Cascades. One of the most beautiful was the tiny Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa, growing along the Thunder Creek trail in North Cascades National Park.

In trying to identify these native orchids I came across the website of the Washington Native Orchid Society and decided to join after seeing their pictures and reading of their outings. Last year (2009) was my first year as a member and my wife, my youngest son, and I were able to go on several of their monthly spring and summer outings. These outings took us to such varied places as Deschutes State Park, Whidbey Island, Orcas Island, Mount Rainier and Mount Adams.

On the first outing, on a very wet and rainy day in April, we went to see Calypso bulbosa growing by the thousands in the Bald Hills of western Washington. We saw other rare native plants also, but this tiny native orchid was the highlight of the trip. On the second trip we went to a site on Whidbey Island in the San Juans where we saw four native orchids including a very rare leafless orchid, Corallorhiza maculata var. ozettensis. This orchid grows in only a few locations in western Washington and had only recently been discovered on Whidbey Island. By the time we returned from that trip we were hooked.

On other trips we saw a species of Ladies' Tresses in the Muddy Meadows area of Mount Adams and various other species there and in the Olympic Mountains, but the highlight of the summer was a hiking trip to the Canadian Rockies in the course of which we did some very active orchid hunting. This didn't involve the local Native Orchid Society, but was intended to be a backpacking vacation. It turned into a two-week orchid hunt, that took us not only to Mount Robson but to Jasper and Banff National Parks and to other areas of the Canadian Rockies.

On that trip we found and photographed fifteen different orchid species including three different species of Lady’s Slippers. We did our hiking in Mount Robson Provincial Park, but also found orchids in other locations along the roads and in two places where we had been sent to look for them. In one location we found thousands of the Yellow Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium parviflorum (also known as Cyp. calceolus), and in another a whole hillside of the Mountain Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium montanum. In the park itself we found both these species and the exquisitely beautiful Sparrow’s Egg Lady’s Slipper, Cypripedium passerinum, as well as numerous other less showy orchids.

This summer we’ve renewed our membership in the Washington Native Orchid Society and are looking forward to more of their excursions and to seeing more of Washington’s forty-two native orchids. We’ve also made plans to go back to Mount Robson and revisit some of the wonderful places we saw last year. We intend, if time allows, to make some excursions on our own for the purpose of orchid hunting, perhaps as far away as Oregon. We've become avid hunters and can recommend the activity to others.

Some advice fr those who are interested: anyone can find native orchids simply by keeping their eyes open. We see them quite often from the windows of the car as we are driving and usually stop if we have time. But if you're interested in seeing more of them there are several things you can do. Joining a local native orchid society, if such exists in your area, is one possibility. The other thing is ask questions. We’ve learned to do that, especially in the National Parks and have almost always found someone who knows where the native orchid species are growing.

Nor does one have to be an active hiker to see these wonderful plants and flowers. The members of our own Native Orchid Society are all ordinary folk including several grandmothers, and none of them besides our own family are hikers and backpackers. Some dedication is required, especially on a rainy day, but for the most part our excursions with the Society are easy and short walks. Indeed, that has been one of the surprises of our membership in the Society - that so many orchids are so accessible and so easily found.

Two things especially need to be emphasized, though. First, these lovely native flowers should be hunted only with a camera or for the pure joy of seeing them in the wild. They should never be dug up or the flowers picked. They're too rare for that, and most of them will die if transplanted. They're far more valuable than the popular exotic tropical orchids: these can't be replaced. For this reason, I keep the locations of the orchids I’ve found private or share them only with those I trust. The other thing I'd want to emphasize is that these orchids are often found on private land and permission should be obtained before opening gates and trampling through fields.

Having experienced the delight of finding these native species in the wild, we hope that others do too. Indeed, if anyone is in western Washington during the spring and summer months our society or our family would be more than willing to help them find and see Washington's native orchids in their native habitats.

List of native orchids pictured (top to bottom):
Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens
Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis
Corallorhiza maculata var. ozettensis
Spiranthes romanzoffiana
Cypripedium montanum
Cypripedium passerinum
Corallorhiza maculata var.occidentalis