Chatterbox

Epipactis gigantea, one of our northwest native orchids is known as the Chatterbox Orchid because of its moveable lip which "chatters" in the slightest breeze. It is also known as the Stream Orchid because it grows in very wet areas, in this case on the edge of a lake.

The movement and the location made photography in this case especailly difficult. We had to deal with the movement because there was a slight breeze the morning this photo was taken, and we had to kneel in the water to get the right angle on the flowers.

These were photographed at Crescent Lake in Olympic National Park in a rather high use area with a beach. Sadly, one of the park staff had come through the area with a weedeater and had mowed most of them down so that only a few stems were untouched.

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