Eleventh Orchid of the Season and Others

The orchid featured in this post is not a separate species, but an unusual and unique variety of a species I've previous posted and so I am counting it as our eleventh orchid of the season.  It is a variety of the Western Spotted Coralroot known as the Ozette Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata var. ozettensis.  There are several sites on Whidbey Island where it can be found but it was originally discovered on the Olympic Peninsula.  It is unique both for its coloring and its lack of spotting.

Corallorhiza maculata var. ozettensis

Along with it we found the Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata, near the end of its bloom season.  This variety is found across the United States and Canada, while the other two varieties are found only in the west.  Among the Spotted Coralroots we found, as we had previously, some spikes of a plant that has the coloration of the Ozette Coralroot, but also has spotting.  The coloration and the fact that these bloom with the Ozettes make me this it is a hybrid of the Ozette and the Spotted.

Corallorhiza maculata var. maculata

a possible hybrid of var. ozettensis and var. maculata

A couple of other observations and this first: all three varieties of the Spotted Coralroot grow in the same area, sometime among each other, but the bloom times are clearly successive, the Western Spotted Coralroot blooming first, the Spotted Coralroot after it, and the Ozette Coralroot as the Spotted are finishing their blooms.  These different bloom times are the principle reason for separating these varieties and the easiest way to distinguish them when they are growing in the same location.

Also, we have noticed that the native orchids and especially the Coralroots are very sparse this year at lower elevations, especially near sea level.  This may be due to a very warm winter with little snowfall and an early and warm spring.  What is especially striking, however, is that at higher elevations the native orchids appear to be more abundant, something a friend has also ascribed to the warm winter.  She believes that the warmer temperatures in the mountains have promoted the growth of the mycorhyzal fungus on which these orchids depend.

Tenth Orchid of the Season and Others

We made a brief trip recently to see one of the most amazing of our native orchids, Cephalanthera austiniae, the Phantom Orchid.  After a failed attempt at a first location we found and photographed it at a second location, our tenth orchid of the season.  We did find it at the first location - it was everywhere - but we only found one plant in bloom.  All the rest were still in bud.

Cephalanthera austiniae

The second location is one we try to avoid, a very dark forest floor with a lot of poison oak.  The day we were there we had not only to contend with poor light and poison oak, but with a stiff breeze.  We managed to get some decent photos, however.  At this location, too, we found a lot of plants and almost all of them were in bloom, but that location is a bit lower and warmer than the first.

Cephalanthera austiniae

 The Phantom Orchid is the only North American species in the genus Cephalanthera and the only species in the genus that is mycoheterotrophic, without chlorophyll or leaves, and depending for nourishment on a soil fungus.  It is bone white and stands out in the forest in which it grows like a phantom.  It is very rare in most of its range but very common in the locations we visited.

Along with the Phantoms we found the Striped Coralroot, Corallorhiza striata, still blooming.  These were nearing the end of their bloom season, but we found some nice examples in both the pinkish and yellowish color forms.  This was at a higher elevation than at home and so the season is later - they are long finished in the areas we visited nearer home.

Corallorhiza striata var. striata

We also found the Western Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis, including the tan-stemmed form, fma. intermedia and the yellow-stemmed form, fma. aurea, the latter just starting to bloom.  Among all these there was one very strange pink-lipped form, very different from anything we've seen before (the lip is usually white).

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis fma. intermedia

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis fma. aurea

Corallorhiza maculata var. occidentalis (pink-lipped form)