Four Piperias in Olympic National Park

[ronaldhanko]

In August we made a day trip to the north part of Olympic National Park and found four of the five Piperias that grow in Washington in bloom there. The thumbnail is of Piperia elegans.



Native Orchids of the Pacific Northwest and the Canadian Rockies: Four Piperias in Olympic National Park

[RosieC]

Fantastic Ron. Great info and pictures.

Piperia elegans is certainly the showiest, but really great to see the others as well.

[ronaldhanko]

Thanks for commenting, Rosie. You are certainly correct about P. elegans. It's also the largest of them with the possible exception of P. unalascensis.

[WhiteRabbit]

beautiful!

[Tindomul]

What a great find!

[ronaldhanko]

Thanks, WhiteRabbit and Tindo. And, Tindo, we go every year to find these plants in the same place, usually not more than half a dozen stems, sometimes fewer. We do know several other locations, though, where there are more of them.

[Tindomul]

I love checking up on plants in the wild. There are a few that I check up on every year or more often.

[ronaldhanko]

The Olympics are one of our favorite places for the orchids that bloom later in the season - we can usually find seven different species blooming then and the Olympics are one of our favorite spots anyway for wildflowers and scenery.