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

Long-spurred Piperia near Pend Oreille

While at a youth camp near Pend Oreille on the Washington Idaho border, I hiked into the hills back of the camp and found a number of Long-spurred Piperia (Platanthera elongata) in bloom.  This rather common species has recently been renamed - it was Piperia elongata, but I prefer the older name since the Piperias are very distinctive.

Twenty-fourth Orchid of the Season

All the Piperias have been reclassified as Platantheras and so this is probably better known as Platanthera elongata, the Long-spurred Piperia, well named for its long, downward curved spur which is four times the length of the flower.  In any case, it is a lovely species when seen close, but the flowers are very small.  Usually the leaves have withered and disappeared by the time the plant flowers and so all one finds is a spike up to 60 cm tall with 75-100 flowers, though it is often much shorter and with many fewer flowers.  These were just starting to open when I photographed them in the area of Deception Pass on Whidbey Island.  They were growing with plants of Platanthera elegans which were a bit past their prime.

Platanthera elongata

Platanthera (Piperia) elongata tooks very much like Platanthera (Piperia) transversa, except that it is usually a taller plant, up to 60 cm tall, with flowers that are usually a darker green color and have a spur that curves downward under the flower.  The shape of the spur and the color of the flower are diagnostic.  Like the other Platanthera/Piperias it prefers exposed and dry locations and is often found growing near Platanthera transversa, Platanthera elegans and Platanthera ephemerantha.  It is faintly fragrant at night its leaves are usually withered by the time its flowers open.  It should be noted that recent name changes have put the Piperias back into the genus Platanthera.

July 24

(Olympic National Park)

July 25

(Whidbey Island)