RHH's photos with the keyword: western

Photographed near the town of Snoqualmie Pass in what appeared to be a graveyard for old railroad cars, fire engines and other vehicles.

Thanks for the identification of this mushroom to David W. Fischer Mycologist, Author, Photographer, Musician AmericanMushrooms.com Author, Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America (1992, Univ. of Texas Press) Coauthor, Mushrooms of Northeastern North America (1997, Syracuse Univ. Press)

These pictures are all from our recent field trip with the Washington Native Orchid Society. We found hundreds of these Coralroots at a location near Deception Pass in the San Juan Islands.

Another batch of pictures from our recent hike with the Washington Native Orchid Society. This is a light colored form of the leafless, saprophytic orchid plant previously posted.

In Explore June 11, 2009, #239. This is the third species of Coralroot we saw on our field trip with the WNOS.

In Explore June 15, 2009, #163. This photo was also taken on a recent WNOS field trip. This orchid as before noted is leafless and saprophytic.

This is a green and white form of the species in the previous photo. This was photographed in the North Cascades on the Thunder Creek Trail south of Diablo Lake.

Another picture of this earliest and loveliest of our native orchids. These were photographed on the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge along the Gorge Trail. This is the Western Fairy Slipper, distinguished by the brown markings on the lip and the white "beard." nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2011/06/c...

This photo was taken by my wife near the place where we took the pictures of the Mountain Lady's Slipper posted a few days ago. I thought the picture especially artistic and worthy of posting. This is the Western Spotted Coralroot, barely distinguishable from the ordinary variety by the shape of the lip. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2011/07/c...

The Western Coralroot is another species in the genus Corallorhiza (I posted a picture of another species yesterday). This species is in bloom now in our area, finished at lower elevations but just starting to bloom in the mountains. These were photographed on Hoypus Hill on the north end of Whidbey Island near Cornet Bay. The Coralroots are leafless and without chlorophyll and get their nourishment from decaying matter in the soil. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2011/07/c...

This is the Western Spotted Coralroot, distinguished from the ordinary Spotted Coralroot by the shape of the lip. All the Coralroots are leafless and without chlorophyll, deriving their nourishment via a fungus from decaying plant material in the soil. As usual we are out orchid hunting at every opportunity and this was photographed during an afternoon walk in Sehome Hill Arboretum in Bellingham, next door to Western Washington University. We found three orchids in the Arboretum that day, including several Fairy Slippers and some Striped Coralroots. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2012/05/t...

This is another one of our native Coralroots, a genus of plants that are almost entirely without leaves or chlorophyll. They are referred to as mycotrophic, which means that live in a symbiotic relationship with a fungus and through the fungus obtain nourishment from decaying material in the soil. These plants often grow on the darkest forest floors where nothing else is growing except the trees which form the canopy above. There they grow among a litter of old branches and decaying logs, and the lighter colored forms stand out vividly in the dark. This species, known as the Western Coralroot, is extremely variable in color, the stems and flowers parts ranging from this deep reddish-purple to pale lavender, yellow and off-white. These plants, photographed in Washington Park, are some of the darkest colored examples I've seen. They are quite common and we see them this time of the year on many of our hikes, but you would have to come out our way to see them, since they grow only out west. You'd have to experience our weather, too. This was taken on a wet and windy day that made photography very difficult. More photos here: ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/05/spring-in-w... nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2012/05/f...

Photographed on a hike with my wife and my brother along the Thunder Creek Trail in the North Cascades. These flowers are just beginning to fade, evidenced by the purplish color in the center of the flower which turns completely pink or rose-red as it ages. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.ca/2012/06/thunder-cree...

Photographed at Lake Elizabeth, a small alpine lake in the North Cascades and a favorite place for scenery, for native orchids, and for other wildflowers. The road up to the lake, a Forest Service road that is quite rough in places is about seven miles and this was taken near the beginning of the road. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/08/lake-elizab...

Spiranthes porrifolia, the Western Ladies' Tresses, is one of three Spiranthes species that grow in Washington state. One of the three species is very common, the other two, including this one, are very rare. This species is known from only one location in Washington, and that right on the Washington/Oregon border. The species is more common further south In Oregon and California and this example was photographed in southern Oregon along the Rogue River. The different species of Spiranthese are known as Ladies' Tresses because of the braided appearance of the flower stems, with the flowers spiraling around the stems. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/08/orchid-hunt... nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2012/07/t... nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2012/07/c...

These are the seed heads of the Western Pasque Flower, photographed by my wife along the Berg Lake trail in Mount Robson Provincial Park. It had rained the night before, so everything was very wet when we hiked the trail in the morning. Because these seed heads look liike a wild head of hiar the Western Pasque Flower, Anemone occidentalis, is sometimes called the Old Man of the Mountains. ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-berg-la...

Another of the orchids from our Greenwater hikes. This is the Western Coralroot, Corallorhiza mertensiana, and the pale form of that species. It is aptly named the Western Coralroot since it is only found west of the Rocky Mountains. It is leafless and without chlorophyll but variable in color, the stems ranging from grayish-white though yellow, tan, brown, pink and reddish-purple, and the flowers also coming in a range of colors and color combinations. The link below shows many of these different color forms and the picture one of the darkest forms. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2012/09/c...