Eastern Fairy Slipper

I've been away the last three days orchid hunting and leading one of their field trips for the Washington Native Plant Society's annual study weekend. I left Friday and visited a site in north-central Washingon to look for this plant. I found a few in bloom but they had had a windstorm sometime past and many trees were down and so I had to do a lot of scrambling and bushwacking and since it was raining came back soaked and chilled and for all that only found about six flowers open, a disappointment.

Went on to the other side of the Cascades where it was hot and dry, the weather on both sides of the mountains the opposite of what we usually experience. There I hiked high in the mountains to find the Western Fairy Slipper, which, due to the weather was nearly finished along with all the other early again orchids. Again, after hiking around 10 miles I found only a few flowers but enjoyed the hike anyway. I hiked the Thunder Creek trail, a hike I had not done for several years.

The following day I scouted for orchids on Fidalgo and Whidbey Islands in preparation for my field trip and visited eight different sites, but due to the strange weather only found a few flowers in bloom. One species was just starting to bloom, one was all but finished and the third was blooming but I found few plants where there are usually a lot. The very hot and dry weather on the west side of the Cascades has meant an early wildfire season and has interfered with many of the wildflowers.

Saturday I led my field trip to see what native orchids were blooming but also visited the Pacific Rim Environmental Institute and saw their piece of original prairie and the large area of prairie they are working on restoring. We saw some unusual and rare wildflowers there and between those and the orchids, had a very good day. I left soon after the field trip finished and headed home arriving home around 10:30 pm. Had a very busy few days and saw in total seven different orchids and two other varieties.

There are two varieties of this orchid, this with the yellow "beard" found all across the northern US and Canada, but not west of the Cascades, the other, which I'll post tomorrow, found only in the west. Where the ranges of the two overlap there is a hybrid of the two varieties, though it is rare and seldom found. This, then, is the Eastern Fairy Slipper, the more common and widely ranging variety and distinguished not only by the yellow "beard" but by the white (or pink) and unspotted front of the lip.