Redwoods, Bigfoot, and Calypso Orchids

It's easy to see why Bigfoot calls the Redwoods 'home'. They are so, well, big. So big, even a 10' tall missing link can pass unnoticed among them. (Where Bigfoot sightings are concerned, my theory is they, like Elvis, get seen only when they wanna get seen, and then it's usually eating fried banana and peanut butter sandwiches.) They are gloriously huge and magnificent and primeval...the Redwoods, not Bigfoot, though the description may fit both...and they are some of the Earth's best work.

Another example of some of the Earth's best work can be found growing among the giant Redwoods, in the ferny, mossy understory below. Every bit as magnificent, Calypso Orchids (Calypso bulbosa) rise up out of the rich compost of fallen and decaying trees like jewels spilled out of a pirate's treasure chest. And though they may be elfin in height, they are no less glorious than those magnificent trees towering over them.

Words like 'glabrous', 'suborbicular', and 'pedicellate' crop up in field guide descriptions of this small, delicate native orchid. But to us reg'lar folk, with little use for the botanical vernacular, it's simply a lovely flower, more poetically described by such names as Fairy Slipper, Venus Slipper, Angel Slipper and Redwoods Orchid.

A native wildflower, Calypso Orchids can be found throughout much of western and northern North America, as well as northern Europe and Asia. They prefer cool, damp mossy coniferous woods, blooming from May into July. The small flowers, perhaps 2" long, have a white inflated slipper-like lip petal which is spotted with purple, bearded with yellow hairs, and ends in 2 horn-like points. A combination of 5 purplish-pink sepals and petals stand out above the lip. (Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis has a white beard, and the petal is mottled with lavender-brown rather than purple. It grows in the Cascade Mts. and adjacent areas west of the Rocky Mts.)

Each Calypso Orchid plant has one leaf and one flower growing out of a small corm. The single flower dangles from a stem no more than 8" tall. The single leaf, about 3" long, withers away after the plant flowers. It is then replaced by a new leaf which will overwinter. It is the only species of the Calypso genus found in northern latitudes, and shares its name with a nymph of some renown.

Calypso Orchids are delicate and lovely in such a way no combination of botanical vernacular or poetic folk names can possibly do it justice. For me to attempt further description is damn near profane. All I can really say is that they are small, delicate, lovely and every bit as magnificent as the giant Redwoods that tower over them, and Bigfoot, who calls the Redwoods 'home'.

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