Western Spotted Coralroot

We are down near the Oregon-California border where we spent the night and will be continuing into California in a little while to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. We spent a wonderful day yesterday traveling down the Oregon coast from Cape Perpetua to Brookings. We did some hiking, visited several lighthouses, walked the beaches, explored the tidepools along the coast, and watched the sunset at Meyer's Creek north of Brookings. The day started foggy and gray but soon turned sunny, and though very windy was pleasant.

These photos were taken last week in eastern Washington near the town of Leavenworth, a faux German town that is a popular tourist destination. I did not stop in the town but continued orchid hunting at several locations near Leavenworth. Coralroots are strange orchids that have no leaves and most of them no chlorophyll. They often grow in dark forests with little undergrowth, those there were in a somewhat brighter location. Washington has four species of Coralroots including the Western Spotted, but they were very sparse this year in all the locations I visited.