Western Fairy Slipper (White-flowered Form) in Washington Park

I have been looking for this and hoping to find it for three or four years and finally have seen it, though I can't take credit for finding it.  A friend from Montana was in our area for the tulip festival and visited Washington Park in Anacortes.  She found it and gave us careful directions as to where she had seen it.  It was growing as a single plant in an area where there were quite a few of the normal form.

This is Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis fma. nivea, the pure white form of the Western Fairy Slipper.  It lacks all the pink-purple color of the normal form and the lip entirely lacks the brown markings, though there is some yellow-green color at the back of the lip.  In the pictures it is evident that it was a wet and rainy day when we went to see it and we came home very wet and muddy, but happy.

Western Fairy Slippers in Washington Park

On Friday, April 20, we took the afternoon and evening off and went to Washington Park near Anacortes, one of our favorite places.  We went to see the Fairy Slippers, expecting that they would be just starting bloom on account of our long cold and wet spring.  We found them at their peak with some of them already starting to go by.  We did not go only to see them, but to see the Oregon Fawn Lilies (Erythronium oregonum), the Few-flowered Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon pulchellum), and other wild flowers which bloom on the cliffs of this beautiful park.  The Fairy Slippers are the main attraction, though, and spring would not be the same without the opportunity to see them.

We saw the other wildflowers in abundance - the Fawn Lilies nearing the end of their brief blooming season, and the Shooting Stars by the thousands at Green Point, but we had come to see the Fairy Slippers and spent most of our time looking for them and photographing them, often lying on the ground or being discovered in some other strange position when others came past.  The Fairy Slippers on this side of the mountains are all the rarer Western variety with a white rather than a yellow beard, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis.  We usually found them scattered as single flowers, but in one location found clumps of three to five of them.

Note: for more pictures of the park and its wildflowers, see the following blog posts:
http://ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/07/washington-park.html
http://ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/05/washington-park-again.html
http://ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/04/first-native-orchids-of-year.html
http://ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/04/washington-park-anacortes.html

Calypso bulbosa at Chiwaukum Creek

On the same day, June10, that we visited Derby Canyon and Plain, Washington, we also hiked at Chiwaukum Creek near Leavenworth.  We found and photographed many different wildflwoers, but were especially delighted to find the Western Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, growing in abundance along the creek.  We found a lot of color variation including a flower that was almost white.  It was also interesting to find them growing in clumps, something we had not seen before with this species.  Whether growing singly or in clumps, however, it remain one of our favorite orchids and can be found over a period of four months as one moves from lower to higher elevations following the snow melt.

Calypso bulbosa in the Columbia Gorge

Hiking in the Columbia Gorge in the area of Horsetail Falls we found the Western Fairy Slipper (Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis) growing in various locations along the trail.  Interestingly, in the steeper areas it seemed always to be on the northwest corner of the outcrops.  We saw it so often in that location that we began to look for it there and found it in places we had previously missed.

In those locations they were often half hidden under other vegetation (and thus known as the "Hider of the North"), but the other location where we found them was different.  That location was in an open mixed woodland, quite level where the plants got only a very little bit of sun and where there was almost no other vegetation.  It was in that location that we began to find Listera cordata as well though we we tended to find more of it in damper, shadier locations.

Horsetail Falls

Calypso bulbosa in Washington Park

I've posted a fairly detailed description of this species and its varieties previously: http://nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/07/calypso-bulbosa.html.  I'd promised myself, however, that this year I would concentrate on getting pictures not only of the native orchids themselves, but of their habitats and here's the first post by way of keeping that resolve.

Calypso bulbosa, the Fairy Slipper, is the first of our native orchids to bloom, and if one looks in the right places it can be found in abundance.  This year I've been to Washington Park on Fidalgo Island, west of the town of Anacortes, Washington, three times to see it, though the first time I went I was a bit early and found only a single flower in bloom.

This is the variety found only west of the of the Rockies and in the North Cascades, C. bulbosa var. occidentalis, the Western Fairy Slipper.  It is easily distinguished from the eastern variety, also found here in Washington, by the white rather than yellow beard and by the brown spotting on the lip.  These differences can be seen in my previous post.

Some different views of the flowers first.  The whitish flower is either not fully open or is well past its prime, probably the latter, since most of those that I saw this color were closing and setting seed.  I keep hoping to find the very rare white (alba) form of the species, which has none of the purple or brown color at all, but all I find are these. 

As for its habitat, it seems to prefer fairly bright locations under the trees or along the roadsides where there is plenty of moss, good drainage, and  relatively flat ground.  It generally does not grow in large clumps, but in scattered groups where its requirements are met, seldom more than a few flowers close enough to get them into a picture.

Fairy Slipper (Calypso bulbosa)

Calypso bulbosa, the Fairy-slipper orchid, is without doubt one of our most beautiful natives and is found from Alaska all the way across Canada and in the northernmost United States, including the Pacific Northwest, the upper Great Lakes area and northern New England.

The plant is almost always found in shaded areas, often along trails and openings in the woodlands where its bright pink color stands out and is easily seen, even though the plant and flower are very small, the plant usually about 20 cm or less and the flowers about 3 cm.

There are some variations, but the plant is usually single flowered and usually has a single leaf that persists after the flower is finished. It is relatively common in our area and we have almost always found it when hiking in the spring in the North Cascades.

Its common name is Hider-of-the-North, a very appropriate name because of its small size and also because it is usually found as a single plant and flower, though when it is happy it will often form large stands, but these are vulnerable to changes in the habitat.

There are actually four varieties of this orchid, one variety found only in Japan and another found across northern Eurasia. The other two are found in North America, varieties americana and occidentalis, both of them shown below and distinguished by the color of the "beard."

Calypso bulbosa var. americana, the Eastern Fairy Slipper, is the more common variety and the only variety found east of the Rocky Mountains. It is easily distinguished by its yellow beard and white lip and is the more brightly colored of the two North American varieties.

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, the Western Fairy Slipper, is found only in the Cascade mountain range and west of the Rockies in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho and Montana. It has a white beard and a lip that is heavily spotted with brownish-purple.  It is, in our area, by far the more common variety and the one we have seen most often.