RHH's photos with the keyword: merten's coralroot

Also known as Merten's Coralroot, this species is found only in the Pacific Northwest but often found in abundance there. Like all the Coralroots it is leafless and without chlorophyll, often growing on dark forest floors. These were photographed on Fidalgo Island in the San Juan's while I was leading a group from the local orchid society to see some of the native orchids there. They were just beginning to bloom and are early like everything else this year. The place where these were photographed has only this dark purple form of the species and is the only place we ever found this form. The species comes in a rainbow of colors, white, pink, yellow, tan, but only there in this beautiful red-purple.

This is an example of the pale-stemmed form of the Western or Merten's Coralroot, Corallorhiza mertensiana, but it would take many photos to show the endless color variation in this species. The stems range from dark purple, dark pink, and brown through pale pink, yellow, pale yellow, tan, off-white and white, and the lips and marking also vary. Some of these variations can be seen in the photos on the link below. The plant is mycoheterotrophic depending entirely for its nourishment on a soil fungus and is, therefore, without leaves or chlorophyll, and is one of four Coralroots here in the state of Washington, all of them leafless and without chlorophyll.