Hooded Ladies' Tresses near Diablo Lake

I had a youth camp in eastern Washington from July 30 to August 2 and some of the attendees rode with me.  We went by way of Highway 20, a very scenic but slow route that takes one through North Cascades National Park and through the Okanagan area east of the mountains.

On our way through the Cascades, near Diablo Lake, I thought I saw some Ladies' Tresses along the road, but did not stop because of my passengers.  I came back the same way, however, sans passengers, and then had opportunity to stop and found a whole area full of one these lovely native orchids.

I discovered when I stopped that it was the rather common Hooded Ladies' Tresses, Spiranthes romanzoffiana, though I would have been surprised indeed to find anything else, since the other two native Ladies' Tresses are very rare and not found in that area.

It was interesting to notice while photographing them the amount of variation in plant size, flower color, and even flower form.  The plants were from 8 to 30 cm tall, the flowers white to cream, and on some flower spikes the flowers were rather more open than on others.

One other variation involved the position of the flowers on the flower spikes.  These orchids are called Ladies' Tresses because the flowers are spiraled around the stem, giving it a braided appearance.  These varied from a very tight spiral to none at all.

For those who are interested, these can be found on Highway 20 at the Diablo Lake overlook just up the hill from the Colonial Creek campground and the bridge that crosses the creek as one is traveling east.  There are a few along the road and many more in the "field" by the parking area.

Fairy Slippers and Twayblades along the Thunder Creek Trail

May 26th my youngest brother was in town and he, my wife and I spent the day hiking in the North Cascades.  Not too many trails are snow-free yet, but the Thunder Creek Tail is at only 1200 feet elevation and has less than 1000 feet of elevation gain the first 7-8 miles and is usually open by mid-May.  It is also a trail where we have found Fairy Slippers in abundance as we found them again this year along with thousands of Heart-leaved Twayblades.

The Fairy Slippers were all the Western variety (Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis), which is to be expected in the North Cascades, and were just passing their prime.  There will still plenty of them in good condition, however, and we even found several nice clumps of them.  We began to see them about two and half miles in and found them in their favorite mossy, half-shaded locations all along the trail, usually on the higher side of the trail where the drainage is better.

We also found some Coralroots not yet in bloom along the trail, probably the Western Coralroot (Corallorhiza mertensiana), but it was the Western Heart-leaved Twayblade (Listera cordata var. nephrophylla) which seemed to be everywhere.  It is not a plant which catches one's attention.  The plant is usually less than six inches tall and the flowers are less than half an inch.  We found both the green and reddish forms, mostly the latter with only a few of the green.

Platanthera stricta along the North Cascades Highway

 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.