RHH's photos with the keyword: heart-leaved twayblade

The Heart-leaved Twayblade, one of our native orchids, is a tiny plant that would probably not even be noticed unless one was looking for it. This example was photographed along the Baker Lake trail in the North Cascades.

Along Berg Lake we found hundreds of these tiny orchids, the Heart-leaved Twayblade and its relative the Northern Twayblade (see inset). The Heart-leaved Twayblade comes in two color forms, red and green (see inset) and is often no taller than 8 cm. Interestingly, this species is also found in Europe.

Here's a native orchid we found Monday while out doing wildflower photography. Usually we find this in the mountains later in the season, but there is one location at sea level where we always find a few plants of the Heart-leaved Twayblade, Listera cordata var. nephrophylla, now known as Neottia cordata and the same species that can be found in Europe. It has a plain green form and this reddish form and it is a tiny thing, in this case only six inches tall (15 cm) with 1 cm flowers.

This is the fourth native orchid we've photographed this season. We had a horrible time photographing them, though. It was breezy and they were tucked in between two fallen logs.Usually we find them higher in the mountains, but there is one location we know where it grows at a very low elevation and always flowers there early in the season, but only a few plants (six this season). This is the reddish form of the species. There is also a plain green form. The species is tiny, the whole plant with its flower spike six to eight inches or less (15 cm) and the flowers less than half an inch (1 cm). Its current botanical name is Neottia cordata var. nephrophylla.

This species is very tiny, often only a few inches tall and has tiny flowers. This plant was photographed on the Heliotrope Ridge Trail in the North Cascades. More information and pictures can be found on my blog at: nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2010/11/h...