Three Native Orchids in Mount Rainier National Park

We were out for several hours at Mount Rainier National Park on Saturday, March 30, with the Washington Native Orchid Society.  We did not have time for sightseeing but visited a number of locations looking for native orchids.  We found three, two that we had seen already this season and one that we had not yet seen and that is rather rare in the state.

The Early Coralroot, Corallorhiza trifida, was the latest addition to this season's sightings.  We found around a dozen stems in an area where we had found this species before.  Growing with them we found a few Western Fairy Slippers, Calypso bulbosa var., occidentalis, as well as a few of the reddish form of the Heart-leaved Twayblade, Listera cordata var. nephrophylla.

At another site and a higher elevation we found hundreds of Fairy Slippers and quite a few more Heart-leaved Twayblades, this time mostly the all-green form.  The green form is Listera cordata var. nephrophylla, and the reddish form is forma rubescens.  We looked for white Fairy Slippers in the area but did not find any, though we had seen them there before.

The Early Coralroot is the smallest of the Coralroots in our area, usually less than 30 cm tall with 1 cm flowers.  This species ranges across the northern USA and Canada and is found in Europe and Asia as well.  The North American Twayblades have all been reclassified as Neottias, so what we saw is more correctly, Neottia cordata var. nephrophylla.

Early Coralroot

Corallorhiza trifida

 Heart-leaved Twayblade, green form

Neottia cordata var. nephrophylla

 Heart-leaved Twayblade, reddish form

Neottia cordata var. nephrophylla fma. rubescens

Western Fairy Slipper

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis

Sixth Orchid of the Season and Others

The fifth orchid we've found in bloom this season is the Early Coralroot, Corallorhiza trifida, a rather uninspiring plant.  We went to see it at Mount Rainier National Park with the Washington Native Orchid Society along with the Western Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis.  We found only a few stems of the Early Coralroot but a lot of Fairy Slippers, as well as a lot of Heart-leaved Twayblades, both the green and red forms, Listera or Neottia cordata var. nephrophylla and Listera Cordata var. nephrophylla fma. rubescens.

Corallorhiza trifida

 Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis

The Fairy Slippers are finished and so are the Twayblades at or near sea level, but both are at their peak in the mountains and since everything is early this year, I did a short hike in the North Cascades to look for the Early Coralroots there, but they were not even above ground yet.  I did find some Fairy Slippers along the trail and a lot of the green (more common) form of the Heart-leaved Twayblade.  Only one of the Twayblades was the red-flowered form, fma. rubescens.  These were just coming into bloom and Fairy Slippers were at their peak.

Neottia cordata var. nephrophylla

 Neottia cordata var. nephrophylla fma. rubescens