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

Eighteenth Orchid of the Season

Known both as the Sparrow's-egg Lady's Slipper and as Franklin's Lady's Slipper, Cypripedium passerinum is not found in Washington but is common further north.  We found these along the Richardson Highway to Valdez, Alaska.  They were near the end of their blooming season, but we found enough fresh flowers for photographs.  The species can grow to 60 cm tall but these were much shorter, less than 30 cm and growing in the open on the roadside.  There was one plant with two flowers, the flowers faded, but ordinarily the tiny flowers are found just one per flower spike.

Cypripedium passerinum

Cypripedium passerinum, known as Franklin's Lady's Slipper or the Sparrow's-egg Lady's Slipper, has flowers that are usually much smaller than the other Lady's Slippers in our area, around 5 cm and they look much smaller in proportion to the plant, which is usually around 35-40 cm.  The flowers are usually single with occasionally two to a stem.  They do not open widely either, the dorsal sepal nearly covering the lip on most flowers.  They are nevertheless very attractive little flowers, but they do not grow in Washington, in fact, they are recorded from only one mainland state, Montana.  We see them in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia and Alberta.

July 3

(Canadian Rockies)

July 9

(Canadian Rockies)