White Bog Orchid
Platanthera dilatata
Description: A perennial from fleshy tuber-like roots. grows to 75cm tall, with lance-shaped leaves that get smaller as you go up the stem. Flowers are white or tinged with green, with a slender spur and a wonderfully fragrance.
Ecology: Grows in swamps, bogs, marshes, wet meadows and seepage & stream/lake-side areas at middle and high elevations.
Notes: This one was found at high elevation on the side of a logging road in the Caren Range, it was on a seepage slope, June 2001.
Western Coralroot
Corallorhiza maculata ssp. mertensiana
Description: This saprophyte (lives on dead and decaying vegetation) comes from branched and coral-like rhizomes, hence the name. Grows to 60cm tall with pink or purple flowers without spots on the lips (spotted variety is C. maculata ssp maculata the Spotted Coralroot). Produces nodding 2cm ovalish capsules.
Ecology: Grows in rich humus in moist or dryish forests, usually in shade. Common at low to middle elevations.
Notes: This one was found on the side of Carlson Lake - a middle - high elevation transition (mixed high and middle elevation species), the picture was taken in June 2001, it was growing with Salal, Sphagnum & Step Mosses, & Blueberry.
Alaska Rein Orchid
Platanthera unalascensis
Description: A perennial from fibrous roots with 1-3 tubers, stems are up to 90cm tall and leafless, has 2-4 lance shaped basal leaves. Its green or greenish white flowers are spur cylindrical and are numerous in narrow clusters, they are not fragrant.
Ecology: Found in dry to moist coniferous forests and streamsides at low and middle elevations.
Notes: This picture was taken on a rocky bluff beneath some arbutus and Douglas Fir in July, 2001.
Slender Bog Orchid
Platanthera stricta
Description: Perennial from spindle shaped tuber-like roots, erect smooth stems grow from 20-100cm tall. Lance shaped sheathing leaves get smaller up the stem, to 15cm long on the bottom. Green or brownish or purplish green flowers are found in slender terminal clusters of 5-30 flowers, not fragrant. Produces elliptic shaped capsules up to 15mm long.
Ecology:Found growing along lakeshores, swamps and bogs, wet meadows and coniferous forests at low to middle elevations, also at higher elevations in wet open meadows.
Notes: This group was growing along a small high elevation lake in the Tetrahedron, it was growing alongside Leafy Mountain Aster and Sticky False Asphodel. July 15, 2006 photo.
Ladies' Tresses
Spiranthes romanzoffiana
Description: A perennial from tuberous roots that grows to 50cm tall on a single stem. It has 2-5 long (to 20cm) narrow basal leaves and shorter stem leaves. Its white, creamy, or greenish white flowers have petals that converge to form a hood and are arranged in 1-4 dense rows that spiral around the stem.
Ecology: Found in dry or moist woods, streamsides, lakeshores, bogs or marshes. Found at low and middle elevations.
Notes: This picture was taken on a grassy rock outcropping in Sechelt in July, 2001.
