The most common (and thus the most abundant) were Northern Green (Habenaria hyperborea) and White Bog (H. dilatata) Orchids. They lined the wet roadsides of Going-to-the-Sun Rd. and Camas Creek Rd in small forests of white and green spikes. These provided me with the most orchids I've ever seen in one place ever. Perhaps regarded by most as rather pedestrian, or easily ignored even, I found them stunning and thrilling. And the White Bog Orchids had a subtle, sweet fragrance made obvious by their sheer number.
Not nearly as ubiquitous or as common was Western Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera oblongifolia). This smaller orchid grows in dry to moist shady woods, and it easily identified by the obvious white vein running the length of its dark green basal leaves. This was the species I found in the woods of the god-forsaken peninsula on the coast of Washington a year earlier.
Hooded Ladies-tresses (Spiranthes romanzoffiana) were one of the more exciting finds of the summer, if only because they were something different after all those bog orchids. The top of the plant's stem is packed with as many as 60 closely spaced white flowers which coil around it. The generic Spiranthes describes this arrangement of flowers - spira means coil while anthos means flower. The common "ladies-tresses" refers to the resemblance of the flowers to a woman's braided hair.
The specific romanzoffiana is in honor of Nicholas Romanzoff, who was a Russian bigwig during the early 19th century. He got the flower named after him because it was first discovered on the Aleutian Island of Unalaska, when Alaska was still a part of Russia.
A couple other greenish orchids, Large Round-leaved Rein Orchid (H. orbiculata) and Small Northern Bog Orchid (H. obtusata) were exciting finds. My wife and I first found three Large Round-leaved Rein Orchids during a mid-May hike into the woods along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River. There were no flowers, and there was barely a stem, but two large, roundish, shiny green leaves lay on the ground. The leaves were clearly orchid leaves.
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