RHH's photos with the keyword: corallorhiza mertensiana

This was photographed on Whidbey Island near Deception Pass in the San Juan Islands. The Coralroots are saprophytes, leafless and without chlorophyll, relying on a symbiotic relation with a fungus for their sustenance. Because of this relationship they are impossible to cultivate.

Like the other Coralroots, this species, too, is mycotrophic, feeding off decaying material in the soil through a fungus. The plants are leafless and without chlorophyll and grow on dark forest floors where there is little other growth. This species is also very variable, the stems varying in color from pink to white to yellow to tan to purple and the flowers equally variable. Some of the color variation is visible in this clump both in stem color and in the markings of the lip. These were photographed in Deception Pass State Park. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2013/05/seventh-week-of-native-orchid-season.html