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

Twenty-eighth Orchid of the Season and Others

All five Piperias (now Platantheras) can be found in Olympic National Park.  We found four of the five when we were there in July, but this one, the fourth we found, was very nearly finished flowering.  In fact, we found only one spike that still had any flowers on it and they were well on their way to oblivion.  The species looks like Platanthera unalascensis, the Alaskan Piperia, but has white instead of green flowers.  The inflorescences grow to 60 cm with numerous 3-4 mm flowers.  At flowering the leaves are usually withered away or starting to wither, a characteristic of all the Platanthera/Piperias.  Known until recently as Piperia candida, it is now classified as Platanthera ephemerantha.

Platanthera ephemerantha

Along with Platanthera ephemerantha candida we found more Platanthera elongata, with its small, faintly fragrant, green flowers and long downward-curved spur.  Like the other Piperias, it seems to be one of the few orchids unaffected by the hot dry summer we've had, though, as is characteristic, the leaves have usually withered away.  These plants tend to grow on exposed hillsides, trailsides, and dry mossy banks, as well as in dry forests.  Platanthera elongata, is the last of the Platanthera/Piperias to bloom, though their blooming seasons overlap and it is possible to see them all in bloom at the same time.  On this trip it was also the most common of the Piperias and seemed to be on every roadside bank.

Platanthera elongata

Note: I've included some older pictures of Platanthera ephemerantha for lack of anything recently taken.

Twenty-seventh Orchid of the Season

The Giant Rattlesnake Orchis, Goodyera oblongifolia, is gigantic only in relation to its smaller relative, the Lesser Rattlesnake Orchis, Goodyera repens.  The plant itself is a small rosette of leaves at ground level and the flower spikes less than 45 cm.  The tiny white flowers are rather inconspicuous and probably would not even be recognized as orchids by most people.  The leaves are often beautifully patterned, but sometimes have only a white stripe down the mid-vein.  The species is one of our most common orchids and can be found out of flower year around since the leaves are usually evergreen.  These photos were taken in Olympic National Park but the orchid can be found almost anywhere in the Pacific Northwest.

More Stream Orchids

While in the Olympics, first with several friends and then with the Native Orchid Society, we visited some new sites for Epipactis gigantea, the Stream Orchid or the Chatterbox, and also investigated another new site.  We found hundreds of them in an area where we have only previously known of a few plants, and since this species is relatively rare in Washington, it was good to know that it is flourishing in this location.  We were disappointed, however, to find that they were nearly finished flowering in all the locations and that in one location the deer had eaten most of the flowers.  The species is one of our more attractive orchids both in the color of the flowers and their size.  The plants grow to 100 cm though the plants we saw were much shorter, and the flowers are 3 cm across.  The plant is invariably found in wet locations, in this case along the edge of an inland lake and well deserves its name, Stream Orchid.