RHH's photos with the keyword: eastern fairy slipper

The Fairy Slipper is Washington's most well-known orchid, but few know that we have two varieties of this orchid, the Eastern Fairy Slipper, shown here, with a yellow "beard", and the Western Fairy Slipper with a white "beard". This example was photographed in north-central Washington and the hair-like decoration is a wisp of lichen that has fallen on the flower and which I did not bother to remove.

We are still traveling and dependent on stops with internet for posting and commenting. Today we are in Florence, Oregon, and headed south to northern California. We've been stopping often to photograph Oregon's beautiful coastline and lighthouses and to explore the tide pools, so we have made very slow progress. We spent the morning stopping around Cape Perpetua and hiking to the Haceta Head lighthouse and stopping at the Darlingtonia Natural Area north of Florence where we saw and photographed the Cobra Lilies that grow there.. The weather started gray and cloudy but has turned sunny and warm, though windy. This photo is from last week's orchid-hunting trip and is of the Eastern Fairy Slipper. The Western Fairy Slipper is found only west of the Rockies, but the Eastern is found all across the USA except a small area west of the Cascades. The Western Fairy Slipper's and the Eastern's ranges overlap where this was photographed and I stopped hoping to find the natural hybrid of the two. There were very few Fairy Slippers blooming this year in a place where there are usually hundreds of them, but I did find one hybrid.

The Eastern Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. americana, blooms across the USA and Canada and is distinguished from the western variety, which has a much more limited range, by the color of the "beard," here yellow and in the western variety white. These were photographed in north central Washington.

Along Berg Lake and the Mumm Basin trail we found a number of orchids, these Eastern Fairy Slippers among them. Rather poorly named, the Eastern Fairy Slipper is found nearly all the way across the northern USA and Canada and is distinguished from the Western Fairy Slipper by its yellow "beard" and by the lack of markings on the lower part of the lip.

Along Berg Lake and the Mumm Basin trail we found a number of orchids, these Eastern Fairy Slippers among them. Rather poorly named, the Eastern Fairy Slipper is found nearly all the way across the northern USA and Canada and is distinguished from the Western Fairy Slipper by its yellow "beard" and by the lack of markings on the lower part of the lip.

Photographed in late spring in eastern Washington, this is the Eastern Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. americana, distinguished by the yellow beard and unspotted lip margin. This variety does not bloom west of the Cascades and blooms later than variety occidentalis which is found west of the Cascades and which has a white beard and a lip with mahogany spotting along the margins. Both varieties have the single leaf shown here and grow to about 15-25 cm tall.

This is the rose-pink form of the Eastern Fairy Slipper. It is different from the Western Fairy Slipper in that it has a yellow "beard" and a lip that is mostly without spotting. This was photographed in eastern Washington. Both varieties grow in the state.

This variety of Calypso bulbosa, the Fairy Slipper grows all across North America but not west of the Cascades. It is, in my opinion, more colorful than the other variety that does grow west of the Cascades, and only there.

This the Eastern Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. americana, a variety that is found across the United States and Canada. It differs visibly from the Western Fairy Slipper, shown below, in its yellow "beard" and relatively unspotted lip. These were photographed in eastern Washington on a recent orchid-hunting trip (only the Western Fairy Slipper grows west of the Cascades).

In Explore July 29, 2009, #313. This is the same flower previously posted but a close-up showing the details of the lip. The yellow beard distinguishes this variety from the other less common variety which has a white beard. Photographed on the Berg Lake Trail near the top of Emperor Hill.

This is the Eastern Fairy Slipper which ranges across Canada and the northern United States, but is not found west of the Cascades. The other variety, the Western Fairy Slipper, shown below, is only found along the Pacific Coast from northern California into Canada. The differences between the two varieties are obvious. The eastern variety has a yellow beard and a lip with an unspotted mid-lobe, while the western variety has a white beard and a lip with a brown-spotted mid-lobe. This photo of the Eastern Fairy Slipper shows the pink-lipped form and there is also a white-lipped form. So this is Calypso bulbosa var. americana fma. rosea. It was photographed in eastern Washington in the area west of Republic, Washington. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2013/06/ninth-week-of-native-orchid-season.html

This is the Eastern Fairy Slipper, but the pink-lipped form. It was photographed in Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/07/calypso-bulbosa.html