Third Orchid of the Season and Others

Was out several times the last couple weeks to do some hiking and orchid hunting.  Found a few Fairy Slippers, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, and Western Spotted Coralroots, Corallorhiza maculaa var. occidentalis, and also found the third orchid of the season, another Coralroot, the Striped Coralroot, Corallorhiza striata var. striata.The Coralroots all seem to be very few in number this season, perhaps as a result of a warm winter and an early spring, and this was no exception.  They were fewer in one location and there were almost none of them in the second location.

Corallorhiza striata var. striata

(starting to bloom)

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis

(nearing their peak at lower elevations)

Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis

(nearly finished at lower elevations)

Calypso bulbosa var occidentalis fma. nivea

(one more still blooming)

More Fairy Slippers and Coralroots

We were on the Olympic Peninsula for a few days the week of April 5-11 and visited a number of places, though not all of them by way of looking for orchids.  Some of our time was spent enjoying the wonderful scenery of the Olympics and in one case we were looking for a rare parasitic plant called the Vancouver Ground Cone, Boschniakia hookeri.  We did find Fairy Slippers, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, at a couple of locations and a few of the Western Spotted Coralroots, Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis, were starting to bloom also.  We've found no other native orchids blooming yet.  The leaves in the last photo are of the Giant Rattlesnake Orchis, Goodyera oblongifolia, which will not be be blooming until mid-summer or later.

More White Fairy Slippers and Other Orchids

White Fairy Slippers are very rare.  I've seen less than a dozen of them among thousands of Fairy Slippers.  They are the albino or alba version of a flower that is ordinarily pink and mahogany or pink and yellow.  These are the white form of the Western Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis fma. nivea  I had found one earlier in the season and found two more when I was out on April 3 and April 6.  I found them in places where I had not seen them before.

The last pictures above show a flower that was not fully open.  Those shown below are the ordinary form of the Western Fairy Slipper and the pale flower is one that is fading.  The Fairy Slippers turn an off-white color as they begin to fade, but this one still shows some pink color in the petals and sepals and has the mahogany spotting and striping on the lip, so it is clearly not an alba form.  The last photos are of the Western Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis.