Twenty-ninth Orchid of the Season and Others

Chamisso's Orchid, Platanthera chorisiana, is one of our smallest native orchids and very hard to find.  In our area these grow in a boggy area among the sedges and at the edge of the bushes and shrubs.  Both plant and flowers are the same green as the grasses and sedges, too.  When I went to visit them they were finished blooming and so I've also included an older photo of the species.  They were 15 cm tall or less and the tiny flowers are less than 1 cm and do not open widely.  It grows at high elevations or northern latitudes.

Platanthera chorisiana

Growing in the same area were the Sierra Rein Orchis, Platanthera dilatata var. lecostachys, the Slender Bog Orchis, Platanthera stricta, and the Hooded Ladies'-tresses, Spiranthes romanzoffiana.  All of these were nearing the end of their blooming season as well, especially Platanthera stricta.  All of these plants like wet areas and sedge mat where they were found is always wet, but even there they were earlier than normal, due to an early spring, little snowfall in the mountains, and a hot dry summer.

Platanthera dilatata var. leucostachys

Platanthera stricta

Platanthera dilatata var. leucostachys and Platanthera stricta

Spiranthes romanzoffiana

Platanthera chorisiana on Vancouver Island

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.

Chamisso's Orchid (Platanthera chorisiana)

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.