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

Three Piperias and a Goodyera at Deception Pass

Saturday, July 30, I was down on Whidbey Island at Deception Pass State Park to look for several orchids there.  I found three Platantheras (formerly Piperias) and one Goodyera in bloom.  Goodyera oblongifolia, the Giant Rattlesnake Orchis, was just starting to bloom.  The three Platantheras were at different stages of their bloom seasons.  Platanthera elegans, the Elegant Piperia, was nearly finished.  Platanthera transversa, the Flat-spurred Piperia, was still good but past its prime, and Plaatanthera elongata, the Long-spurred Piperia was at the peak of its bloom.  The latter species was also more abundant than usual, with hundreds of plants and several large colonies.  It should be noted that all the Piperias are now reclassified as Platantheras, though I prefer the old names since they are so distinctive.

Giant Rattlesnake Orchis

Goodyera oblongifolia

Elegant Piperia

Platanthera elegans

Flat-spurred Piperia

Platanthera transversa

Long-spurred Piperia

Platanthera elongata

Twenty-sixth Orchid of the Season and Others

The orchid featured in this post is the Alaskan Piperia, not a common orchid in our area, and in this case a rare dwarf form of the species, Platanthera or Piperia unalascensis fma. olympica.  The species can be as tall as 90 cm but in these are less than 30 cm and are found, as far as I know, only in one location, the top of Hurricane Ridge in Olympic National Park.

Platanthera unalascensis var. olympica

We caught them at the very end of their blooming season, though that was very early this year due our early spring and very hot, dry summer.  Most of them, especially those in exposed areas, were finished, but there were a few in more sheltered areas that were still in good form.  We did not find any sign of the normal form of the species, however, at lower elevations.

Along with this species we saw a number of others in the Olympics which we had seen earlier in the year and elsewhere.  These were seen further west of Hurricane Ridge and included two other Platantheras, the Elegant Piperia, Platanthera elegans, and the Long-spurred Piperia, Platanthera elongata, and the Stream Orchid, Epipactis gigantea, which was almost finished blooming, though very early.

Platantherra elegans

Platanthera elongata

It should be noted that all the Piperias have recently been reclassified as Platantheras, so these species are now Platanthera unalascensis, Platanthera elegans and Platanthera elongata.  These species were all originally classified as Platantheras or Habenarias, but were moved to a new genus in 1901.  There is still a great deal of disagreement about their classification.