Orchids on Fidalgo Island

 

Because of the covid outbreak were not able to visit many of our favorite orchid hunting location this year.  Most of the state parks and national forests were closed until late in the summer and the city parks also.  We had to do most of our hiking in areas where there were no orchids and that were close to home.  We did manage to visit Washington Park in Anacortes in late May but by that time the Fairy Slippers were nearly finished and we only saw a couple of them along with a few Coralroots.

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis (Western Fairy Slipper)

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis (Western Spotted Coralroot)

The End of Another Season

Our 2016 native orchid season was considerably abbreviated by a trip to Australia, so we saw only a limited number of the species we usually visit and did not accomplish much of what we had intended for the season.  The high point was finding in Washington a species we had seen elsewhere but not in the state, Listera or Neottia borealis, the Northern Twayblade.  True to its name we found it in the northernmost parts of the state.

We also looked for and found again some rarities, particularly the natural hybrid of the two varieties of Fairy Slippers, the Eastern and Western Fairy Slippers, Kostiuk's Hybrid Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa x kostiukiae, and the white form of the Western Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis fma. nivea.  Both of these were growing where we had found them previously and seemed well established in those locations.

We found some new sites for the Western Fairy Slipper and for the Early Coralroot, Corallorhiza trifida, the latter especially important since it is not common in the state of Washington.  These sites were on both sides of the Cascades and proof that the species is adaptable and quite widely distributed, though it is here near the southern end of its range, being much more common as one moves to the north. 

We missed a lot of species, however, and will have to look for some of them next year.  As always are plans are to look for new locations and to find in the state of Washington the species we have not yet seen there, especially Dactylorhiza viride var. virescens, the Long-bracted Green Orchis, and Platanthera obtusata var. obtusata, the Blunt-leaved Rein Orchis, and we have locations for both within the state.

Three Orchids near Wauconda

Another location I visited on May 20th, but much further north, was a site where the Eastern Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. americana, grows in abundance, but I found it near the end of its bloom season and early like everything else.  This variety of the Fairy Slipper is very different from the Western Fairy Slipper, with a yellow beard on an otherwise nearly unspotted lip.  Nor does it grow west of the Cascades as does the Western Fairy Slipper.  I also found in the same location one plant still in bloom of Kostiuk's Hybrid Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa x kostiukiae, a rare natural hybrid of the Eastern and Western Fairy Slippers.  It is also very distinctive, with a pale yellow beard, midway between the bright yellow and white of the two varieties and a finely spotted lip.  With these two Fairy Slippers there were also several stems of the Early Coralroot, Corallorhiza trifida.

Eastern Fairy Slipper

Calypso bulbosa var. americana

Eastern Fairy Slipper (pink form)
Calypso bulbosa var. americana fma. rosea

Kostiuk's Hybrid Fairy Slipper

Calypso bulbosa x kostiukiae

Early Coralroot

Corallorhiza trifida

Western Fairy Slippers near Leavenworth

On our way to eastern Washington recently we hiked (dwadled is more accurate) along the Chiwaukum Creek trail through an area that was devastated last summer by wildfires (the Chiwaukum Complex Fires).  We went looking to see if the Fairy Slippers were blooming there and they were, though there were not nearly as many of them as previous years.  The area where we usually find them had been missed by the fires, but we wondered if their lack of numbers was not somehow related to the fires.

More Orchids on Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands

I was out for several hours with members of our local orchid society visiting some of the sites we know on Whidbey and Fidalgo Islandz.  We found three different species and number of rarities including white Fairy Slippers (Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis fma. nivea) and both the golden-stemmed and the unspotted form of the Western Spotted Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis fma. aurea and fma. immaculata).  We also found the dark purple form of the Western Coralroot or Merten's Coralroot (Corallorhiza mertensiana), a form which we know from only one location (this species usually comes in shades of pink, tan, yellow and white).  The Fairy Slippers were nearly finished but the Coralroots were just coming to the peak of their bloom season.  Interestingly, the Fairy Slippers and Western Spotted Coralroots were fewer in number than previous years but the Western Coralroots were much more abundant.

Western Coralroot

Corallorhiza mertensiana

Western Spotted Coralroot

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis

 gold-stemmed Western Spotted Coralroot

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis fma. aurea

unspotted Western Spotted Coralroot

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis fma. immaculata

Western Fairy Slipper

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis

  

white Western Fairy Slipper

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis fma. nivea