Three Orchids along the Thunder Creek Trail

Saturday, May 21, was a hike at Thunder Creek with the Washington Native Orchid Society.  We went to see the Western Fairy Slippers, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, but they were all finished.  We found two Twayblades, the Northwestern Twayblade, Neottia banksiana, also known as Neottia caurina, and the Heart-leaved Twayblade, Neottia cordata var. cordata, but it was nearly finished blooming.  The star of the show was the Western or Merten's Coralroot, Corallorhiza mertensiana, which we saw in a variety of colors including some very pale forms.  Actually we saw a fourth orchid as well, the Western Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis, but we were near the end of the hike and the battery in my camera was dead, so I did not get pictures.

Northwestern Twayblade

Neottia banksiana (caurina)

Heart-leaved Twayblade

Neottia cordata var. cordata

Western Coralroot

Corallorhiza mertensiana

Western Coralroot (pale form)

Corallorhiza mertensiana fma. pallida

Twenty-fifth Orchid of the Season and Others

Neottia banksiana, also known as Listera caurina, is one of our most common orchids.  known as the Northwestern Twayblade, we see it most often in open forests and along trailsides, and that was where we found these examples in Olympic National Park.  At first glance it looks like the much rarer Neottia convallarioides, but is easily distinguished from that species by the blackish markings on the top of the lip.  It grows to 30 cm tall, though these plants were all smaller and carries up to fifteen insect-like flowers.  The friend from Canada who I was with when I photographed these found several plants with a third leaf, a much rarer form of the species, fma. trifolia.

Neottia banksiana

Neottia banksiana fma. trifolia

The same day we found the Neottias we also found Platanthera dilatata var. leucostachys and Platanthera stricta, the Tall White Northern Bog Orchis and the Slender Bog Orchis.  These were growing on wet banks and in wet ditches along the roadside, exactly where one would expect to find them.  Though we found hundreds of the Neottias, these were very few in number, due I am sure to the hot dry summer we've had.  These were still in good conditions but there were far fewer of them than previous years and we found none of the hybrid between the two species, Platanthera xestesii, Estes Rein Orchis, but that may have been due to overly enthusiastic mowing of the roadsides by the Park Service.

Platanthera dilatata var. leucostachys

Realized as I prepared this post that I never photographed Platanthera stricta.

Neottia banksiana

Neottia banksiana or Neottia caurina as it is sometimes known, is a very common species in our area, blooming along nearly very mountain trail.  Like all the Neottias in our area it is small and easily missed and has rather inconspicuous flowers.  It stands from five to eight inches (12-20 cm) tall, and has green flowers with a distinctive lip that has a broad, rounded end and two blackish marks near the base.  Up close the 1 cm flowers look like tiny green insects.

June 25

(North Cascades)

June 27
(North Cascades)

July 27
(South Cascades, Mount Rainier area)