Orchid Hunting in the Cascades

 

We made a long trip through Washington, Oregon and northern California recently, and spent some time orchid hunting.  We looked for and found seven orchids in Washington, Epipactis gigantea, the Stream Orchid or Chatterbox, so named for its love of lake and stream sides and for its hinged lip, which moves in the breeze, and Cypripedium montanum, the Mountain Lady's Slipper.  The Epipactis, though rare in Washington, we found by the thousands in the location we visited.  The Lady's Slipper was also abundant and we found both the very dark form with the purple-stained lip (fma. welchii) and the albino form (fma. praetertinctum).  In the same place we found the Mountain Lady's Slippers we also found Platanthera unalascensis, the Alaskan Piperia.  At a third location we found Platanthera dilatata, the Bog Candle, and at a fifth location Cephalanthera austiniae, the Phantom Orchid and Corallorhiza maculata, the Spotted Coralroot, both red-stemmed and yellow stemmed varieties, along with a few stems of Corallorhiza striata, the striped Coralroot, both the ordinary variety and the smaller-flowered var. vreedlandii.

Epipactis gigantea

Stream Orchid

Cypripedium montanum

Mountain Lady's Slipper

Cypripedium montanum fma. welchii

Mountain Lady's Slipper, purple-marked lip

 

Cypripedium montanum fma. praetertinctum

Mountain Lady's Slipper, albino form

 

 

 

 

Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata

 Bog Candle

 

Platanthera unalascensis
Alaskan Piperia

 

Cephalanthera austiniae
Phantom Orchid

Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata
Spotted Coralroot

Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata fma. flavida

Spotted Coralroot, yellow-stemmed form

 

 

Corallorhiza striata var. striata
Striped Coralroot

and

Corallorhiza striata var. vreelandii

Vreeland's Coralroot

 

Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata fma. aurea

The Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata is the later blooming variety of two in our area.  It is distinguished not only by its later bloom season but by the side lobes of the lip which are more or less parallel rather than being rounded.  Like many of the Coralroots it is variable in color and this is a yellow-stemmed variety which is unnamed but which I've chosen to call Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata fma. aurea.  We have only ever found it in one location where it grows in abundance.

 June 12

June 23

Variation in the Spotted Coralroot

Corallorhiza maculata, the Spotted Coralroot, is not as variable as the Western Coralroot, Corallorhiza mertensiana, but there is still considerable variation here in the Pacific Northwest, including three varieties and five named color forms.  They are:

Variety #1 - the Spotted Coralroot (found in both the eastern and western United States and Canada.  This variety is distinguished by the lip which has parallel sides and by a later bloom time where it grows together with the Western Spotted Coralroot.

Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata - bronzy stems and purple spotted lip
("bronzy" covers considerable color variation in this case)

Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata fma. flavida - yellow stems and unspotted lip

(this is a form we have not seen)

Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata fma. aurea - yellow stems and spotted lip
(the forma aurea name is my own since this is not a named form)

Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata fma. rubra  - red stems and red-spotted lip

(in the Northwest this appears to us to be the most common form)

Variety #2 is the Western Spotted Coralroot, which is found across Canada but only in the Western United States.  This variety is distinguished by the rounded end or mid-lobe of the lip and by a slightly earlier bloom time where it grows with the ordinary Spotted Coralroot.

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis - bronzy stems and spotted lip

(here again "bronzy" covers considerable color variation)

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis fma. aurea - yellow stems and spotted lip

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis fma. immaculata - yellow stems and unspotted lip

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis fma. punicea - red stems and spotted lip

Unamed Color Forms
(the last looks a lot like var. ozettensis)

Variety #3 is found only in Washington and British Columbia, was only recently described (2001) and is quite rare, found only in a few locations on the Olympic Peninsula, Whidbey Island, Vancouver Island and the middle of British Columbia.  It is known as the Ozette Coralroot after the location in which it was first found.  This variety is distinguished by the unspotted lip, greenish flowers and flowering time.

Corallorhiza maculata var. ozettensis - purple-red stems and unspotted lip

The third variety is very distinct, but the other two seem to grade into each other and it is not easy to tell them apart unless one visits repeatedly an area where both grow.  Then it becomes evident that the Spotted Coralroot blooms slightly later than the Western Spotted though there is some overlap, and tends to have smaller flowers and predominantly red stems (fma. rubra), at least in this area.

As can be seen from the photos, there is considerable variation also in flower color and in the spotting of the lip and flowers.  While some flowers are free of spotting except on the lip others are spotted especially on the petals and the lips vary from fine and dense spotting to sparse and coarse, many lips having almost no spotting on the mid-lobe and others a single reddish-purple spot.

this is variety maculata

these are variety occidentalis

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