Frog Orchid

This terrestrial orchid is reputed to grow in Washington but we have not found it, not yet anyway. It was photographed by my wife along the Harding Icefields trail in Kenai Fjords National Park . Its botanical name is Dactylorhiza viride var. virescens (it is also sometimes found under the name Coeloglossum viride) and it is known as the Frog Orchid because its lip looks like the back legs of a jumping frog. It is very common across Canada and is also found across the north and east of the United States, though it is usually rarer the further south one goes.