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.
6 comments:
Are these the same bunch that we checked out when I visited? That site was amazing!!
Same site, but we were a bit early. They were just starting to bloom.
I've been looking for this! I found a wonderful patch rising from the forest floor like smoke, in dry litter, no sunlight. Beautiful pale purple stems with chocolate brown on the lower part of the stem. Sadly the flowers had withered, but I'll be back to photograph them again next year if the area hasn't been logged. Found north of Mission BC. I can send my photos if you'd like to see them.
Great find and I'd love to see your photos. They are really wonderful, aren't they, coming out of nowhere and appearing in very dark and shady areas sometimes.
OK I'd be happy to, but I'm not sure if I can upload photos to you here. If you can send an email address I'd be happy to attach 4 or 5 of them. My name is Robbin and you can send to robbinyager@yahoo.ca
I'm sending it from my email now. Eager to see the photos.
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