RHH's photos with the keyword: western fairy slipper

This is the Western Fairy Slipper, the variety of this orchid that grows west of the Rockies and one of the parents of the hybrid Fairy Slipper I posted several days ago. Its botanical name is Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis and it was photographed in the area of Chiwaukum Creek in Washington State.

Last Thursday turned out to be a decent day and as my wife put it, "we flew the coop." We found a lot of the early spring wildflowers along the coast including these first orchids of the season. We did not find a lot of them since they are just starting to bloom, a bit earlier than usual, but it was nice to see them again. They are always the first orchids and among the first wildflowers to bloom in our area. They are the Western Fairy Slipper, found only in a relatively small area west of the Rocky Mountains. The Eastern variety is found across the USA and Canada and has a large yellow spot on the lip.

Taken in Washington Park on a rainy day, this little clump of Fairy Slippers was the nicest group I found. The patterned leaves to the right and left, however, are not the leaves of the Fairy Slippers but of the Oregon Fawn Lily, Erythronium oreganum.

We were out on the Olympic Peninsula this morning with the Washington Native Orchid Society looking for Fairy Slippers and Coralroots, so I thought it would be appropriate to post this beauty. This is the rare white form (albino or alba) of the Western Fairy Slipper, but it was not photographed on the Olympic Peninsula. I photographed this nearer home two weeks ago. We saw Fairy Slippers this morning but no white ones. I've only seen around a half dozen of them among all the thousands of Fairy Slippers I've seen. This is Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis fma. nivea, i.e., the Bulbous Calypso, western variety, white form.

I must apologize for posting so many photos of this orchid, but it is the season here and we have been to see them in a number of different locations and have enjoyed them on most of our recent hikes. This variety is found only to the west of the Rockies. The Eastern Fairy Slipper is found across the USA and Canada and has a yellow instead of a white "beard" and lacks the reddish-mahogany markings on the lip. This one was photographed in Washington Park near Anacortes.

This is the first of our native orchids to bloom and they are blooming very early this year, two or three weeks ahead of schedule. Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, the Western Fairy Slipper blooms in open woodlands, often at the side of a trail. It has a single leaf lying along the ground and visible in this shot and a single flower 3-4 cm in size. This example was photographed in Washington Park on Fidalgo Island.

This is either a pale form of the Western Fairy Slipper or a flower that is just starting to fade. Perhaps the presence of the spider webs indicates that it is an older flower. It was photographed last spring along the trail from Rosario Beach to Bowman Beach.

This is a single flowering plant of the Western Fairy Slipper photographed in Sharpe Park on Fidalgo Island. The single leaf can just be seen lying along the ground back of the stem. This variety of the Fairy Slippers is found only west of the Rockies and differs from the Eastern variety in its white "beard" and mahogany spotted lip. The other variety is shown in the inset.

This is the Western Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, photographed last spring in Sharpe Park on Fidalgo Island. It is the first of our native orchids to bloom and can be found in many different locations and at many different elevations. This variety with its brown-spotted lip and white beard is found only to the west of the Rocky Mountains. The other North American variety, the Eastern Fairy Slipper is found from the east side of the Cascades to the Atlantic seaboard.

This is the Western Fairy Slipper, nearly the last of the season, photographed on the eastern side of the Cascades at a higher elevation. This is also one of the nicest clumps of this species we have seen.

Here's another photo of the Western Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis, photographed in Washington Park. The white "beard" or this variety is very evident in the photo and is one of the distinguishing characteristics of this variety (the other North American variety has a yellow beard).

Another picture of the Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa. This is the Western Fairy Slipper, with a white beard (just visible) and a brown-spotted lip. It is the first of our native orchids to bloom and is in bloom already at the lowest elevations. We were out yesterday and visited three different places, looking for Fairy Slippers and whatever else we could find. We found a few of these at one of the locations.

The Calypsos (Calypso bulbosa) or Fairy Slippers are the first of our native orchids to bloom and they are in bloom one again! My wife and I went to Washington Park in Anacortes Monday to see and photograph the Fawn Lilies (Erythronium oregonum) but learned from a friend that the Fairy Slippers were also in bloom, quite early for them. We found them well into their bloom season and spent the day photographing them and the other wildflowers for which the park is famous. This is the Western Fairy Slipper, easily distinguished from the eastern variety by the white beard and brown-spotted lip.

More often than not one finds Fairy Slippers as single flowers and so finding a nice clump of them is always a bonus. These were photographed in the area of Leavenworth, Washington, on an orchid-hunting trip there.. They are the Western Fairy Slipper, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis found only in the far western USA and Canada. There are three other varieties, however, one native to Eurasia, another to Japan and a third to the northern USA and Canada. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/05/orchid-hunting-in-leavenworth-area.html

This is the rare albino form of the Western Fairy Slipper, usually pink in color, Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis fma. nivea. We found several of this this spring when the Fairy Slippers were blooming. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/05/orchid-hunting-on-fidalgo-and-whidbey.html

This is one more photo of a Fairy Slipper showing the whole plant including the single leaf at the base of the plant. The photo was taken at Anderson Lake State Park on the Olympic Peninsula.

Thought I'd post a close-up showing some of the detail of these lovely native orchids, the first orchids to bloom here in the spring. This example was photographed in Sharpe Park on Fidalgo Island. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2013/04/sharpe-park...

We are always on the lookout for all-white Fairy Slippers and occasionally we find very pale forms that still have the colored lip. This one we found in Sharpe Park, but it may be that the flower is white because it's fading. When pollinated and fading they also turn white. In any case we thought it very beautiful. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2013/04/f...