Two Platantheras Near Home

This year was an especially good year for wildflowers and orchids in our area due to a longer, cooler and wetter spring.  The last while I found several Piperias (now Platanthera) near our home, an especially nice find since we have had little opportunity to do any orchid hunting the past couple years.  One of the species, Piperia or Platanthera elongata, the Long-spurred Piperia, I had seen before, but this year I found it in five or six different locations within two miles of our home.  The other species, Piperia or Platanthera elegans, the Elegant Piperia, I had not seen before in our area and was thrilled to find one lonely stem.  Here are the photos.

Piperia elegans, Elegant Piperia

Piperia elongata, Long-spurred Piperia

Featured Gallery

I had been asked to do a gallery of photos for the North American Orchid Conservation Center's website for 2020.  The original plan was a gallery featuring the native orchids of the Olympic Peninsula since the annual native orchid conference was to be held there in 2020.  That conference had to be cancelled because of the covid crisis.  I was then asked to do a gallery, also featuring the orchids of the Olympic Peninsula, but titled, "What We Missed."  The gallery was duly published and is now on the website of NAOCC at this address: https://northamericanorchidcenter.org/featured-olympic-peninsula-what-we-missed/.  The photo at the head of this brief post is also on that website and is of myself photographing Cypripedium montanum, the Mountain Lady's Slipper, in Blewett Pass, Washington.  The other photos are the photos featured in the gallery.

Calyso bulbosa var. occidentalis

Epipactis gigantea

Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata

Platanthera x estesii (a natural hybird of P. dilatata and P. stricta)

Piperia (Platanthera) unalascensis in situ

Piperia (Platanthera) elegans

Piperia (Platanthera) transversa

Piperia (Platanthera) elongata

 Piperia candida (Platanthera ephemerantha)

 Goodyeara oblongifolia

 Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis

 Corallorhiza maculata var.ozettensis

Corallorhiza mertensiana

 Corallorhiza striata var. striata

 Neottia banksiana

 Spiranthes romanzoffiana

New Orchid Season

I had to lead a field trip for the Washington Native Plant Society on Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands on May 18 and did some orchid hunting along the way and in preparation for the field trip.  I found five species in bloom and several additional varieties, the first orchids of the year for me.  The plants all seemed sparse this year, especially on the west side of the mountains where an unusual winter was followed by a hot and dry spring.

I stopped first in north-central Washington to see if the Eastern Fairy Slippers were blooming there.  They had just started and I found about six plants in flower, but it was raining and I did not linger or explore further than the area we were acquainted with.

Calypso bulbosa var. americana

Eastern Fairy Slipper

I went on to the west side of the Cascades and hike the Thunder Creek trail looking for the Western Fairy Slipper but they were nearly finished even at that elevation and I only found a couple of plants.  Also found two different Listeras in bloom there.

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis

Western Fairy Slipper

 The Northwestern Twayblade was just starting to bloom and I found a few open flowers.  Both the red and green forms of the Heart-leaved Twayblade were blooming but there were far fewer of them than I am used to seeing that area.  I had difficulty finding just a few of them.

Listera (Neottia) banksiana

Northwestern Twayblade

Listera (Neottia) cordata var. nephrophylla

Heart-leaved Twayblade (green form)

Listera (neottia cordata var. nephrophylla fma. rubescens

Heart-leaved Twayblade (red form)

Later in preparation for the field trip I visited a number of different sites and found a few Western Spotted Coralroot blooming where I had expected to find many of them.  I also found some Western Coralroot but they were only just beginning to bloom.

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis

Western Spotted Coralroot

Corallorhiza mertensiana

Western Coralroot

At a number of locations I found the Giant Rattlesnake Orchid but it was a long way from blooming, as I expected.  I did, however, take some photos of the leaves including some that showed the beautiful reticulation that is sometimes seen.

Goodyera oblongifolia

Giant Rattlesnake Orchid