The Olympics

 

 July14-16 we were in Olympic National Park for some hiking and sightseeing.  We visited a number of our favorite places including Ruby Beach, the Hoh Rainforest, Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent and Deer Park.  We did one shorter hike along the Hoh River and one longer hike along Lillian Ridge and down to Grant Lake.  It was not meant to be an orchid-hunting trip but we did find a number of orchids which I've posted here.

Epipactis gigantea (Chatterbox or Stream Orchid)

 

Piperia (Platanthera) elegans (Elegant Piperia)

Neottia banksiana (Northwestern Twayblade)

Piperia (Platanthera) unalascensis (Alaskan Piperia)

Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata (Tall White Northern Bog Orchis)

Platanthera dilatata var. leucostachys (Sierra Rein Orchis)

2017, A Missed Year

 

2017 was a missed year for us as far as native orchids were concerned. I was in the hospital four times from March through August and did not really start feeling better until January of 2018.

Back on March 22 I went in to emergency at the local hospital with what I thought and the doctors first thought was appendicitis. An abdominal drain was put in to drain off the expected infection with an appendectomy scheduled several weeks later. The abdominal drain, however, produced no signs of infection but rather a kind of mucous and I was sent on to a specialist in Seattle who diagnosed the problem as mucinous neoplasms of the appendix, basically a tumor of the appendix that was producing a mucous-like substance that would in time strangle my organs and that could also have been cancerous. I had surgery on May 9 and had my appendix, part of my colon, gall bladder, omentum and peritoneum removed and was in the hospital recovering until May 24th (15 days). Thankfully, there were no signs of cancer.

While recovering from the surgery at home I ended up back in the hospital the end of June with blood clots in left leg and in my lungs. After spending several days in the hospital and being prescribed blood thinners I was sent home again and began the recovery from that problem.

Then the beginning of August I was back in the hospital, first in Bellingham and then after being transferred, in Seattle, this time for an obstructed bowel, the result of scar tissue. That stay lasted a week before the obstruction cleared and again I was sent home and have been home since gradually regaining my strength.

As a result of the surgeries and lengthy recovery I retired and we moved to Spokane, Washington, to be near our handicapped son.

The only native orchids I photographed in 2017 were a couple of orchids in Hyalite Canyon, Montana, and Yellowstone National Park.  We went on a family vacation to the Black Hills in July while I was recovering from surgery and bloodclots and we took two of our grandchildren back to Washington with us for the rest of the summer, stopping in the area of Bozeman, Montana, for a few days.  My father grew up in that area.  We also went on to Yellowstone National Park with them before heading to Washington and I photographed a few orchids in both places.

Hyalite Canyon, Montana

Platanthera dilatata var. albiflora (White Bog Orchid)

Yellowstone National Park

Platanthera dilatata var. albiflora (White Bog Orchid)

Platanthera x estesii (Estes' Hybrid Bog Orchid)

Platanthera stricta (Slender Bog Orchid)

Piperia (Platanthera) unalascensis (Alaskan Piperia)

Spiranthes romanzoffiana (Hooded Ladies' Tresses)

Platanthera unalascensis fma. olympica

Platnthera unalascensis is a common and widespread species that grows down the west coast and into the southwest, across the northern United States and southern Canada, but there is a dwarf form of the species that grows only on Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park, Platanthera unalascensis var. olympica.  Ordinarily the species grows as tall as 90 cm but the dwarf form to 15 cm.  The flowers of both forms are unremarkable and very small, less than 0.5 cm.  It can also be found under the names Piperia or Spiranthes or Habenaria unalascensis or Platanthera foetida.

Platanthera unalascensis

There are five Platanthera species in Washington that were formerly classified as Piperia, and this species, the Alaskan Piperia, is the least attractive of them all.  It has very small green flowers, 3-4 mm, though on a stem that is quite tall and which can hold as many as 80 flowers.  While very common in other areas of the Pacific Northwest we do not see it that often here in Washington.

June 23
(Eastern Washington)

July 10

(Canadian Rockies)

July 25

(Olympic Mountains)