RHH's photos with the keyword: tall white northern bog orchis

While camped at Three Forks, Montana, we did a day trip up the Hyalite Canyon Road southeast of Bozeman. We found several different native orchids near Hyalite Reservoir including this Tall White Northern Bog Orchis, Platanthera dilatata var. albiflora.

This is the Tall White Northern Bog Orchis, Platanthera dilatata var. dilatata, photographed along the North Cascades Highway near Washington Pass. This orchid, along with the Slender Bog Orchis, Platanthera stricta can be found in abundance along the roadsides of most of the passes in the Cascades. It is sweetly scented and is often found, as this spike of flowers, with the lip caught in the petals and dorsal sepal.

Taken along the Yellowhead Highway between the towns of Blue River and Valemont, this scene is quite typical of the area. There are thousands of bog orchids growing in the ditches and on the banks along the highway, here two species, Platanthera stricta, the Slender Bog Orchis with its green flowers, and Platanthera dilatata, the Tall White Northern Bog Orchis. There are also a few Indian Paintbrush mixed in with the orchids.

The Tall White Northern Bog Orchis is one of our more common natives but none the less beautiful for that and fragrant as well. It is tall, up to three feet (100 cm), obviously white, northern in that it ranges across Canada and most of the northern USA and a bog plant, too, growing in the wettest areas. There are three varieties of this species with different length spurs. This has a spur about equal to the length of the lip, but a variety with a longer spur, much longer than the lip, also grows at Lake Elizabeth where this was photographed. This variety is much more common, however. This photo was taken by my wife. I took photos of this species as well, but as is all too often the case, she got the best picture and for that reason I've posted this variety rather than the rarer long-spurred variety. All three, varieties, however, can be seen at the link below. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2012/10/t...