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 x estesii

Platanthera xestesii, Estes hybrid Rein Orchis, as the "x" indicates, is a natural hybrid of Platanthera dilatata, the Bog Candle, and Platanthera stricta, the Slender Bog Orchis.  It very closely resembles Platanthera huronensis, the Green Bog Orchis, and is difficult to distinguish from that species.  It may, in fact, be part of intergrading complex that includes all the above species.  In my experience, having seen plants that have been identified as the natural hybrid, the differences between it and the Green Bog Orchis are (1) a shorter spur (shorter than the lip rather than equal in length to the lip), (2) a thinner spur which is more like that of the Bog Candle, and (3) the shape of the lip, which instead of looking like the head of lance, looks more like that of the Bog Candle.  In any case, these plants do not fit exactly the description of the Green Bog Orchis and I've lumped them under this natural hybrid.

July 7

(Canadian Rockies)

Growing with Platanthera dilatata

July 17

(Canadian Rockies)

The Northwest's Green-flowered Platantheras

The green-flowered Platantheras with the exception of the tiny and rare Platanthera chorisiana (Chamiso's Orchid) are very difficult to tell apart and most experts consider them to be a series of species many of which hybridize with one another and thus intergrade.  This is our experience as well.  We have found plants that very closely fit the description of each species, but have also found endless numbers of plants that are very difficult to identify and seem to have characteristics of more than one species.

The species are Platanthera aquilonis, huronensis, sparsiflora and stricta and a number of hybrids, Platanthera x correllii, x estesii and x lassenii, the first a hybrid of Platanthera aquilonis and stricta and the both the latter hybrids of the white-flowered Platanthera dilatata (with P. stricta and P. sparsiflora).  The white-flowered Platanthera dilatata with its three varieties cannot be confused with any of the green-flowered species, but because it hybridizes with them must be considered here also.

Of these species, Platanthera sparsiflora, the Few-Flowered Rein Orchis, is the easiest to identify and the most clearly defined as a species in our experience, though our experience of this species is somewhat limited since it is at the extreme northern limit of its range in Washington.  The narrow flowers, usually widely spaced on tall spikes are the identifying features.  It is found in Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico and in southern Oregon and northern California often grows in serpentine soils.

This species has a named hybrid with Platanthera dilatata, Platanthera x lassenii, Lassen's Hybrid Rein Orchis, but this is known only from cultivation, at least to my knowledge.  I know of no one who has seen it in the wild or seen anything that might resemble it.  The pictures of it I have seen show a spidery pale green flower that looks a bit like the Platanthera dilatata parent.  There are also several varieties and new species that have been separated from this species, but they are not found in the northwest.

Next is Platanthera aquilonis, the Northern Green Bog Orchis, distinguished by its green flowers with a yellowish lip, a lip that is more or less straight-sided, a club-shaped spur that is curved forward and shorter than the lip, an absence of scent and anther sacs that are low in the flower, widely separated at the base and close together at the top.  The pictures below represent close approximations to the description of this species, but as we shall see there are plants that only partly fit this description and have also characteristics of other species.

Platanthera huronensis, the Green Bog Orchis, can be difficult to distinguish from the previous species.  Though it is ordinarily a whitish-green, the color varies and the two species cannot be distinguished by color alone.  Along with the color, its features are a lip that is not yellowish, a lip that has a dilated or narrowed base, a spur that is not as distinctly thickened as the previous species and that is equal in length to the lip and does not curve forward, with anther sacs toward the top of the flower and almost parallel.

Very similar to this species is the natural hybrid of Platanthera dilatata and stricta, P. x estesii.  In our experience the slender curved spur, and the widened base of the lip, both very much like the spur and lip of the Platanthera dilatata parent are distinctive as well as the whitish color.  This hybrid seems quite common - we have seen it in the Olympics, in Yellowstone National Park and in the Canadian Rockies - and if we have correctly identified it would indicate that the two parents rather freely hybridize with one another.  In all these locations the two parents grow and flower together.

Platanthera stricta, the Slender Bog Orchis, is distinguished by rather small green flowers, a straight-sided lip and a spur described as "scrotiform," i.e. with an inflated tip, a spur that is shorter than the length of the flower.  This species is very common and blooms along-side of and concurrently with the other green-flowered Platantheras.  At first meeting it seems rather easy to identify until one begins to find plants that do not match the description of the species exactly and have characteristics of the other species.

Finally, here are a couple of pictures of flowers that do not clearly fit any of the descriptions.  The first has every characteristic of Platanthera stricta, spur shape and lip shape especially, but has a lip that is very yellow, a characteristic of Platanthera aquilonis and the reason I identified it in the field as the latter species.  The second has all the characteristics of Platanthera stricta, too, except the spur in length and shape is much more like that of Platanthera huronensis.  This would probably be classified as Platanthera stricta but is not completely characteristic of that species.

Estes Hybrid Rein Orchis (Platanthera x estesii)

This plant is a natural hybrid between Platanthera dilatata var. albiflora and Platanthera stricta.  We have found it in several places where these two species grow together.

It looks more like P. dilatata than P. stricta, like a greenish-white version of the former species.  The plant and flower size are nearly the same also as for that species.