Slender White Piperia

This is another native orchid from our trip to Olympic National Park last summer. We had looked for these in one location but they were finished blooming there. A day later we found them everywhere along the Deer Park Road. This is Piperia candida, the Slender White Piperia, which is found along the Pacific Northwest Coast from Alaska to California. It grows to about two feet tall (60cm) and the flowers are a quarter of an inch in size (5mm). The leaves which lie along the ground are usually withered and gone by the time the plant flowers, so all one finds is a tall, slender flower spike.