When you're seven years old, naming landmarks is a simple endeavor. Near our family fishing cabin is a small creek that runs through what we creatively dubbed Flower Valley. The little valley overflowed with wildflowers that changed out like clockwork over the course of the summer, beginning with the irises and ending with fireweed. Gentians, lupine, paintbrushes, valerians, and geraniums could all be found here in their own time. Our mother's favorites were cherished and given places of prominence in bouquets we plucked periodically: deep purple iris and tall greenish bog candles. There was, however, one flower that carried an almost sacred air: lady's slippers.
The cabin is surrounded on three sides by rolling tundra, and exploring the treeless hills and tussocks was a constant enterprise. Towards Lazy Bay, near the sundew bog and the eagle's nest, we discovered a small hill, the south-facing side of which was covered in lady's slippers. These, our child-minds knew, were too beautiful to be picked. Being picked eventually meant dying, and these should not suffer that fate. We brought mom out to look at them in lieu of bringing her a bouquet.
This was my earliest encounter with wild orchids- as a rare and special thing. I think most of us have that association with these flowers. They grace plates at fancy restaurants in Hawaii, ads for lotions and perfumes, the hostess-gift/mother's day section of the grocery store. The serious cultivation of orchids is rumored to be a careful business, requiring intimate attention to such things as humidity and light. Flower shows might showcase the most ornate blooms, with colorful twisting petals and patterns. They are thought of as delicate, finicky, and perhaps above all, exotic blooms.
But orchids are the largest genus of plants on the planet, with more species than any other group (approx. 30,000) (source). And while many do grace tropical regions and faraway locales, quite a few species can be found much closer to home. They run the gamut from elaborate flowers with complex patterns and forms, to inconspicuous green blooms that could fit on your fingernail. Here are a few varieties from places we've seen in the US:
(Clockwise starting at top center: Ragged fringed orchid, Platanthera lacera, Illinois. Phantom Orchid, Cephalanthera austiniae, Oregon. Unknown ladies tresses, Spiranthes sp, Alaska. Western Coralroot, Corallorhiza mertensiana, Oregon. Northwestern twayblade, Neottia banksiana, Oregon. Calypso Orchid, Calypso balboa, Oregon. Great Plains ladies' tresses, Spiranthes magnicamporum, Illinois. Palomino Ladies Slipper, Cypripedium yatabeanum. Alaska. Center: Spotted Coralroot, Corallorhiza maculata, Oregon.
Orchid Biology
Most seeds we are familiar with are essentially baby plants. Encased in a seed coat is the embryo, destined to (hopefully) grow into a new young plant. Included in this little package is endosperm, which is essentially food for the embryo, much like the yolk sac of a newly hatched salmon. This is also the tasty bit we like to eat, particularly in fruits like corn, beans, and nuts. Endosperm is meant to help fuel the embryo's first growth to put down a root and start to unfurl its cotyledons (first leaves).
Orchids don't bother with all that. In lieu of making expensive endosperm for a few embryos, they simply make hundreds to millions of very tiny seeds without endosperm that are so small and light they can sometimes travel on the wind. These spindle-shaped seeds consist of just an orchid embryo, sitting inside its seed coat. They are reliant on luck to land somewhere near a fungal partner to help it grow. And yet, based on what we know about the massive success of the orchid family of plants, this strategy must work pretty well.
In the second image below, the black bar represents one millimeter, and each dash line measures 1/20 of a millimeter, or about 1/512 of an inch. Orchid seeds are really tiny.
How to Treat Wild Orchids
Now, this is very important. Listen carefully.
1. DON'T PICK OR DIG UP ORCHIDS.
Orchids are dependent on their symbiotic relationships with soil fungi. When people dig them up to attempt to transplant them, they most likely die. This is a terrible thing because many orchids, especially the most beautiful ones, are becoming more and more rare. Also, when some orchids are picked, they die. It takes them a lot of energy to make a flower, which is totally wasted when someone snaps it off for a bouquet. Those flowers were likely destined to become seeds, and now you've reduced the number of new orchid plants in the area. Enjoy them in the wild where they belong!
Side note: This goes for any native plant. Over time, I noticed that the number and diversity of flowers in Flower Valley went down, something that I realize now was due to our habit of picking bouquets from the area.
2. Be careful touching them for the aforementioned reasons, and about telling others where they are. Especially the most beautiful species, like lady's slippers. In one unfortunate anecdote, a small population of lady's slippers were discovered in Illinois, where they suffer greatly from habitat loss. The lucky discoverer eventually told a few friends of the flowers whereabouts, and within days they had been dug up and destroyed. This is a common problem, sadly. The temptation to take possession of these plants can be too strong, particularly for those unaware of the deadly consequences to the plant.
Ok, that's it. As with all wildflowers, be aware that flowers are how plants reproduce and make more flowers, and when you pick them, you are having a decidedly negative impact on the population.
The Jewels of the Undergrowth
All that being said, some orchids are, happily, quite common, and can be enjoyed while living in their native habitat. That rattlesnake orchid in the gallery above is easy to find in conifer forests in the west. In my experience, the coralroot orchids, a parasitic, non-photosynthesizing genus, is also fairly common in the coastal range and cascades mountain ranges of the Pacific Northwest. The diminutive, spectacular calypso orchid can also be found here. More rarely, phantom orchids occasionally show up in the western woods, and bog candles and rein orchids grow in wetlands and seeps. In our homeland of Kodiak Island, AK, keyflower orchids and palomino ladies slippers live on the tundra. Various ladies tresses can be found often in meadows and open places. Twayblades are found in open woods.
Train your eye to the undergrowth, to the plain green and pink spotted and frayed white petals lurking there. Exotic beauty is closer than you think.
Resources
Curious about what orchids live near you? Check out some of these great resources, and contact us if you have one we should add to the list!
Go Orchids: This is a useful site that lists the species in each US state
North American Orchid Center on Alaskan orchid species:
US Botanic Garden on orchids of the US:
North American Conservation Center: