Today we found our seventh orchid of the season and it was a first for us. For several years we have gone in the spring to see the Eastern Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. americana. That variety grows only to the east of the Cascade Mountains but is found from there to the east coast of the USA and Canada. We have to travel across the mountains to eastern Washington to see it, therefore, and the trip is not one we make on the spur of the moment. The variety that grows in our area, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, the Western Fairy Slipper, grows only to the west of the Rocky Mountains and we see it often.
These two varieties are very distinct as the pictures show, but between the Cascades and the Rockies their ranges overlap and there is a natural hybrid of the two varieties, very different from either. That natural hybrid is known as Kostiuk's Hybrid Calypso, Calypso bulbosa x kostiukiae (the "x" indicating a natural hybrid). Along with the photos of this hybrid I've included photos of both the Eastern and Western Fairy Slippers for comparison and it is obvious that this hybrid has characteristics of both, the yellowish beard of the Eastern Fairy Slipper and the spotted lip of the Western Fairy Slippe.
Looking for this hybrid we had two sets of GPS coordinates to work with. We found one plant of the hybrid at the first location but did not find it at the second. We did, however, find one other flower and found it as we walked several miles of trails examining every plant of the hundreds that were still in flower. The first flower we found was starting to go by and the lip was darkening and curling and we did not even recognize it as the hybrid at first. The second flower was fresh and clearly identifiable as the hybrid. We were very excited to find it after so many failures and on a beautiful day when photography was easy.
Kostiuk's Hybrid Calypso, Calypso bulbosa x kostiukiae
(yellow beard and spotted lip)
(yellow beard and spotted lip)
Western Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis
(white beard, spotted lip)
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Eastern Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. americana
(yellow beard, unspotted lip)
8 comments:
Those Fairyslippers look amazing. So beautiful! The hybrid of the two forms seems to take the best of both worlds creating a striking appearance.
I understand the excitement, finding such rare hybrids and then have a chance to take good pictures. I still think you should make a book or at least print them large. The flower pictures are money shots.
I wanted to comment the previous post too. Since we saw the early coralroot in eastern Hesse and Thuringia the same weekend. If you ever come for a visit, Thuringia would really be a good destination. We saw lots of species e.g. insane amounts of ladyslippers.
That a beautiful orchid. It must be a thrill to find them. The yellow one is in flower here at the end of June.(Eastern Quebec) Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for commenting, Martin. I went up to the site on Goat Mountain that you visited but the Early Coralroots were not even up of the ground there yet. The hybrid Calypso was indeed an exciting find. I only ever seen one picture of it on the web.
Thanks for looking and commenting, Thel. They certainly are beautiful, though at least around here they are not uncommon (the hybrid is but not the other varieties).
A wonderful hybrid, Ron. With parental so beautiful the result had to be spectacular. Congratulations to locate it and thanks for sharing. Hugs
Thanks, Angel. All the best.
I was a Flickr friend of yours for many years until you moved your photos to a different photo sharing site. I note that you are still taking exceptional native orchid photos. I will be in Bellingham, WA for 10 days beginning June 30. Any chance of getting together for a little orchid photography? petegrube@comcast.net
Hey Pete. Nice to hear from you. I'll get in contact with you via email and arrange something.
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