RHH's photos with the keyword: gigantea

These Stream Orchids were photographed along the Illinois River in Oregon. They are the only native Epipactis species and are also known as the Chatterbox because the lip "chatters" in the lightest breeze, moving up and down. The lower flower has a bee on it which later crawled under the column and flew away with the pollinia.

A view from the East Loop Drive in the Rincon Mountains District of Saguaro National Park, Arizona.

When in Saguaro National Park last year we spent time first in the Tucson Mountains District and hiked the Wasson Peak Trail there before going on to the Rincon Mountains District and exploring that part of the park.

Taken in the Rincon Mountains District of Saguaro National Park while hiking the Garwood Trail. A wash is a dry stream bed in the desert where the infrequent rains drain away.

Photographed along the Garwood Trail in the Rincon Mountains District of Saguaro National Park. A "crested" Saguaro has been damaged in some way when younger and has grown in this strange fashion as a result.

Photographed late in the day along the Bull Pasture Trail in the Ajo Mountains of Organ Pipe National Monument on the Arizona-Mexico border.

Photographed in Saguaro National Park last March when we traveled south to escape the snow. We hiked the Garwood and several other trails in Saguaro East.

Ribs of a Saguaro cactus photographed along the Garwood Trail in Saguaro National Park.

Photographed in Organ Pipe National Monument along the Puerto Blanco Drive which follows the USA-Mexico border.

These Saguaros were photographed along the Puerto Blanco Drive in Organ Pipe Cactus National Park in Arizona.

The taller cacti are, of course, Saguaros, the shorter the Chain Fruit Cholla. The photograph was taken along the Bull Pasture trail in the Ajo Mountains of southern Arizona and in Organ Pipe Cactus National Park.

Taken along the Garwood trail, part of a loop we hiked in Saguaro National Park in Arizona, these Saguaro cacti were everywhere.

When in the southwest earlier in the year we hiked the Sendero Esperanza trail in Saguaro National Park. The trail gave us great views of the mountains to the west and north and of parts of the city of Tucson.

This Saguaro cactus was photographed along the Wasson Peak Footpath in Saguaro National Park in Arizona.

These Saguaro Cacti were photographed in Organ Pipe National Monument on the Arizona-Mexico border. We saw them all across Arizona and would see them again, many of them, in Saguaro National Park.

After traveling down the Oregon coast and spending time in the Redwoods, we spent another few days orchid hunting in northwestern California and southwestern Oregon. These were a few of the orchids we found, this the Stream Orchid or Chatterbox, so named for its moveable lip, along the Little Illinois River in southwestern Oregon.

Known as the Stream Orchid because it always grows near water, or Chatterbox because of its hinged, moveable lip, Epipactis gigantea is rare elsewhere in Washington, but grows by the thousands in the area we visited on our recent trip. It is the only native Epipactis species in North America, though there is one other species that has naturalized across the United States and Canada. The photos were taken on the first day of our trip amid a cloud of mosquitoes and in a very wet and swampy location.

These are the masses of Stream Orchids we photographed in a wet and swampy area in Dry Falls State Park in Washington. Rare elsewhere in the state they grow my the thousands here.