Eighth Week of the Native Orchid Season - Three Lady's Slippers and Three Coralroots

May 26-June1

Three excursions this week, one of them more of a detour that was part of a trip to Seatac Airport on Wednesday the 29th.  I left early in the morning that day and visited three places in the area of Leavenworth and Blewett Pass to see and photograph the Mountain Lady's Slippers, Cypripedium montanum.  At all three places I found them well started.  Interestingly it was only the darker forms that were blooming, though two of the locations had plants with buds that look to have little of the mahogany color, probably fma. praetertincum.  Those were at least a week from blooming and perhaps more.  That makes me wonder if these different color forms are actually different varieties or if there is some hybrid influence.

The first place I visited had only a couple stems and the flowers were a very dark color, but difficult to photograph because the light was poor and there was a good breeze blowing.  The second place was actually a series of three or four spots in the same location.  Many of the plants at one spot were lighter in color and more greenish and there were a lot of green-flowered plants there as well not yet in bloom.  At another spot they were much darker in color and were growing under conifers.  At this spot they were also the form with the rich red-purple color around the rim of the pouch, fma. welchii.  At the third place the flowers were also a very dark color and had the color-rimmed pouch.

first place

second place, first spot

second place, second spot

fma. welchii

third place

fma. welchii

Later in the week we made a brief excursion to Deception Pass and the bridge that connects Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands.  We went there to take a grandson on the boat tour of Deception Pass but climbed Goose Rock as well and I had opportunity to photograph the Western Spotted Coralroots there, Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis.  I had photographed them in the Leavenwoth area as well.  At this time of the year they seem to be everywhere and we see them almost every time we are out, sometimes a few, sometimes large clumps of them.  I noticed, too, at Goose Rock that the later blooming other variety of this species, var. maculata, is up and will be blooming before long.

from the Leavenworth area

I had seen Coralroots also on Monday when son Edward and I went hiking in the Chuckanut Mountains.  He was off school because of the Memorial Day holiday and we went up the Fragrance Lake trail, a trail my wife and I had hiked some weeks earlier.  We found both the Striped and Spotted Coralroots blooming, Corallorhiza striata and maculata.  In fact we found both varieties of the Spotted Coralroot, the ordinary variety which blooms later, Coralorhiza maculata var. maculata and the earlier blooming Western Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis.  The ordinary variety is distinguished by a later bloom time, flowers that are more cupped and a lip with parallel in stead of rounded edges.

Corallorhiza striata var. striata

 Carallorhiza maculata var. maculata

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis fma. intermedia

brown-stemmed form

Saturday was an outing with the Washington Native Orchid Society.  We went to an undisclosed location to see one of the few places in the state of Washington where the Yellow Lady's Slipper, Cypripedium parviflorum can be found.  The others went on the next day to see a second location but I had to get home.  This species is considered endangered in the state and for that reason we were made to promise that we would not reveal any information as to the location.  We have seen this species in British Columbia but it was wonderful to see it here in our own state as well.  For several reason I believe what we saw was the Northern Small Yellow Lady's Slipper, Cypripedium parviflorum var. makasin.

Cypripedium parviflorum var. makasin (?)

What we found, however, was much more exciting, not only because this was var. makasin but also because there were over a hundred plants in the area we were shown.  Even more exciting, however, was the fact that this was clearly a mixed population of plants that resembled pure Cypripedium parviflorum, plants that resembled the other species shown above, Cypripedium montanum, and plants that were clearly intermediate between the two species, the natural hybrid, Cypripedium x columbianum.  As is evident from the pictures, the pouches especially varied in shape and color between the two species.

Cypripedium montanum (?)

Cypripedium montanum (?) and Cypripedium x columbianum

To clarify, Cypripedium montanum always has a white pouch while Cypripedium parviflorum always has a yellow pouch.  Here the pouches ranged from white to off-white to pale yellow to deep yellow.  It is doubtful, therefore, that any of the plants in this population were pure Cypripedium montanum or parviflorum and likely that they were all hybrids though some more clearly than others, in other words, all Cypripedium x columbianum.