RHH's photos with the keyword: elegans

This is a Western Garter Snake my wife and I found while walking near our house. Garter snakes are not poisonous and this species is quite common in the west.

This is a Western Garter Snake my wife and I found while walking near our house. Garter snakes are not poisonous and this species is quite common in the west.

Photographed along the Horseshoe Lake trail near the Nenana River in Denali National Park, these were some of the most beautiful paintbrush I've seen. Most of our Paintbrush are red or orange, very unlike these beauties.

July 31 and August 1, 2013, we were in Olympic National Park orchid hunting. Our first stop was in the area of Crescent Lake where we looked for an found two orchids including this one, the Elegant Piperia (Piperia elegans). One one of the several plants we found there was a crab spider lurking among the flowers. He had taken on the color of the stems and we probably would not have noticed him if he had not moved, but here he is. The Elegant Piperia, the orchid, can be around three feet tall (100cm) and in this location grows very tall. The individual flowers, however, are only about a quarter of an inch (8mm). I've submitted a picture of the spider to BugGuide.net for identification and the spider has been identified there as the Flower Spider, Misumena vatia.

I believe these are the Jewel Lichen or Elegant Orange Lichen, Xanthoria elegans. The photo was taken by my wife on the Snowbird Pass trail above Berg Lake in Mount Robson Park on one of our backpacking trips there.

This is called the Death Camas because all parts of the plant are poisonous both to people and to animals. It was photographed near the Mount Robson Vistor's Center.

This orchid was photographed in Olympic National Park at East Beach on Crescent Lake. It was one of the last native orchids to bloom during the summer.

On our recent trip to the Olympics we went to see some of the native orchids that were blooming in the park, especially the Piperias. This is Piperia elegans, the Elegant Piperia, and was photographed by East Beach near Crescent Lake in the north part of Olympic National Park. nativeorchidsofthepacificnorthwest.blogspot.com/2011/09/f... ronaldhanko-orchidhunter.blogspot.com/2011/09/olympic-nat...