April 21-27
The third week of the native orchid season we were able to get out twice for some orchid hunting. On Monday, April 22, we climbed Mount Si near North Bend, Washington, and on our way down found a few Western Fairy Slippers, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, blooming at lower elevations.
Friday afternoon we visited Sehome Hill Arboretum in Bellingham, looking for Fairy Slippers where we had found one poor flower the year before. We were able to find quite a few more in that area, though many of them were going by as a result of a very early spring and will soon be finished there.
To our surprise we also found a few spikes of the Western Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis, starting to bloom. The earliest date I have for these is May 10th, so they, too, are several weeks early, though some spikes had not yet started to bloom.
Friday afternoon we visited Sehome Hill Arboretum in Bellingham, looking for Fairy Slippers where we had found one poor flower the year before. We were able to find quite a few more in that area, though many of them were going by as a result of a very early spring and will soon be finished there.
This one was either deformed or not yet fully opened,
but shows some of the details of the flowers.
To our surprise we also found a few spikes of the Western Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis, starting to bloom. The earliest date I have for these is May 10th, so they, too, are several weeks early, though some spikes had not yet started to bloom.
