Western Coralroot

Also known as Merten's Coralroot, this species is found only in the Pacific Northwest but often found in abundance there. Like all the Coralroots it is leafless and without chlorophyll, often growing on dark forest floors. These were photographed on Fidalgo Island in the San Juan's while I was leading a group from the local orchid society to see some of the native orchids there. They were just beginning to bloom and are early like everything else this year. The place where these were photographed has only this dark purple form of the species and is the only place we ever found this form. The species comes in a rainbow of colors, white, pink, yellow, tan, but only there in this beautiful red-purple.