Orchids on Fidalgo Island

 

Because of the covid outbreak were not able to visit many of our favorite orchid hunting location this year.  Most of the state parks and national forests were closed until late in the summer and the city parks also.  We had to do most of our hiking in areas where there were no orchids and that were close to home.  We did manage to visit Washington Park in Anacortes in late May but by that time the Fairy Slippers were nearly finished and we only saw a couple of them along with a few Coralroots.

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis (Western Fairy Slipper)

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis (Western Spotted Coralroot)

Two Coralroots in the Chuckanut Mountains

I was out for a little while on May 5th checking out some locations in the Chuckanut Mountains and looking to see if the Striped Coralroots, Corallorhiza striata var. striata, were blooming.  They were, and I found them at two locations along with the Western Spotted Coralroots, Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis.  At one location the Striped Coralroots had been decimated by slugs, but even so I found enough of them to photograph.  It is interesting that we've always found the two species growing together but have never found any indication that they hybridize.  Perhaps the pollinators are so different that there is no possibility of them hybridizing.

Striped Coralroot

(Corallorhiza striata var. striata)

Western Spotted Coralroot

(Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis)

Three Orchids on Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands

Monday, April 11, we went to Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands (both driveable) to look for orchids and spring wildflowers.  We found more Western Fairy Slippers and in some locations found them near the end of their bloom season.  Among them we found two white flowers and we found two other orchids.  The Western Heart-leaved Twayblade we found at one location where we had found it before, but only two plants and both the reddish form of the species.  We usually find this species blooming later in abundance in the mountains, but this location is near the coast and near sea level.  We also found the Western Spotted Coralroots beginning to bloom at two locations.

Western Fairy Slipper

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis

a very pale form and a flower that is pollinated and finished

White Western Fairy Slipper

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis fma. nivea

Western Heart-leaved Twayblade

Neottia cordata var. nephrophylla fma. rubescens

Western Spotted Coralroot 

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis