Ten Orchid Species in Mount Robson Provincial Park

Calypso bulbosa var. americana

We backpacked in Mount Robson Provincial Park In British Columbia recently.  We went both for the scenery and the native orchids and were well satisfied with what we saw of both.  On the 23km hike to our campsite we found ten different orchids in bloom and saw several more that were not yet in bloom, a total of twelve, ten of which are featured in this post.  I posted them in the order we saw them, though we saw several species at different places along the trail.

Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata

Neottia borealis

Neottia cordata var. cordata

Neottia cordata var. cordata fma. viridens
 

Platanthera obtusata

Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum
 

Galearis rotundifolia

Cypripedium passerinum

Galearis rotundifolia fma. lineata

Platanthera aquilonis

Corallorhiza trifida

Calypso bulbosa var. americana

Mount Robson and Berg Lake

Two Color Forms of Galearis rotundifolia

While orchid hunting in Kootenay National Park in British Columbia we found two color forms of Amerorchis rotundifolia now Galearis rotundifolia.  The ordinary form has a spotted lip (see photo below) but these two forms are different.  Fma. lineata has a lip with heavy purple "lines" and fma. immaculata has a pure white lip.  I had seen fma. lineata before but had never seen fma. immaculata.

Galearis rotundifolia fma. immaculata

 Galearis rotundifolia fma. lineata

In addition to these forms we found a form, not named, but probably fma. lineata, with a lip that ws almost solid purple.  There are other color forms as well, some of which we've seen and some not.  There is a pink-flowered form, an all-white form and a form with green on lip and very faint pinkish-purple markings.  Some effort is required to examine the plants for these different forms but the effort is often rewarded since they often grow mixed in with the ordinary spotted form of the flowers.

Galearis rotundifolia is a small terrestrial orchid, generally around 15 cm with 2 cm flowers, with up to 15 flowers per inflorescence.  It easily goes unnoticed but up close is very beautiful with the flowers resembling little angels.  When found it is often found in abundance with hundreds of plants in an area.  It prefers slightly shady forest locations that have plenty of water and is widespread.

Galearis rotundifolia

Finally Platanthera obtusta in Washington

Platanthera obtusata, the Blunt-leaved Rein Orchis, is very common in the Canadian Rockies and further north and we've seen it often, so often that we do not usually stop to photograph it.  It was, however, one of only two orchids native to Washington that we had not seen in the state.

We'd been given several sets of GPS coordinates by a friend and finally found the species in the Okanogan Highlands in north-central Washington in two locations.  We had to do some scrambling and bushwacking to see it, but found it at peak of bloom and were delighted to add it to our list.

In both cases it was growing on the edge of a bog, about twenty plants at each location.  We did not stay long for photos since the mosquitoes were thick and biting, but got enough photos to record the find, beautiful in the photos but in fact rather small and uninspiring and easily missed.

New Location for Epipactis gigantea

Having information from a friend who found the species there (he was along on the excursion) we visited Dry Falls State Park in central Washington to see Epipactis gigantea, the Stream Ochid.  Reputed to be rare in the state there were thousands of plants at two locations in the park, and though the flowers were just beginning to open we were able to get enough photos to prove that we had seen the species there.

 

Epipactis gigantea is an attractive species, always growing near water and often on the very edge of streams and lakes.  That was the case here also.  Sometimes the flowers are rather dull-colored but often they are the opposite, as the photos demonstrate.  It is also a rather large plant as native orchids go, and it is surprising that with its size and the number of plants it had not been previously reported from this location.