My unknown Alaska orchid - Orchid Board

jess_hawk · #1 03-03-2009, 04:31 AM

This orchid has been driving me nuts since my summer in Alaska (07). With my trusty guide to plants, I identified white bog orchids, slender bog orchids, and spotted coralroot... but there was no mention anywhere of a yellow slipper-type orchid.

Found in a muskeg along the side of a road on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, in mid summer... probably around July 4 (I have my photos arranged by date, but of course I didn't check the date before I shut down the dinosaur, and as it took me about four hours to reach the file the first time... I think I'll just guess). Relatively low elevation... I want to estimate only 100-200 feet.

I don't know if anyone will be able to ID it, but thought I would ask anyway. I know the photos aren't the best, the focus is really soft on my camera and the lighting was poor, but I hope I got enough to give a good idea of what they looked like!

Sandy4453 · #2 03-03-2009, 07:27 AM

Cypripedium pubescens?

lambelkip · #3 03-03-2009, 10:01 AM

Sandy, I think you've got it. pubescens is usually listed as a variant of Cypripedium calceolus.

Jess, you may want to get your photos off your "dinosaur" before it becomes extinct. computers don't last forever.

camille1585 · #4 03-03-2009, 10:19 AM

From what I found Cypripedium pubescens is also known as Cypripedium parviflorum var. pubescens, and is also found in alaska. It's really gorgeous, you were lucky to see it!

Since you seem interested in native orchids, did you join the 'wild orchid hunters' social group?

jess_hawk · #5 03-03-2009, 04:51 PM

Thanks!
My coworker stopped to photograph the mountains and I saw these growing by the side of the road. Lee saw them too and wanted to know if they were DAFFODILS! Really now? First of all, obviously its an orchid, and secondly, who in their right mind would plant daffodils in the middle of nowhere, Alaska? Ah, well, she's a geologist, I can't expect her to know botany.

Thank you SO much again, and Camille, no I haven't joined the "wild orchid hunters" group because I didn't know there was one! I will do!

Lambelkip - I'm slowly getting my photos off of my computer. Most of them (about 95% I would say) are saved on my external hard drive, and 80% are on CDs in addition to that... but all of the CDs are somewhere at my parents house, so I can't move things efficiently with them. The other five percent of photos are simply taking centuries to move! (and 5% is a large number... just of my Alaska photos I have something like 5000).

greenbean · #6 03-04-2009, 03:00 AM

Daffodils, really? Well, most of the kids at my high school couldn't tell a maple from a pine tree, and that was a logging community! It's a shame the art of simple observation is so rare.

You're so lucky! There are several native Cypripediums in the Northwest going all the way up to Alaska and I have yet to see any of them. I did have this recurring dream once where I was hiking and stumbled upon a huge patch of every native orchid in Washington (I had been scouring books on natives for weeks). Some might call that strange and say I have a problem. I, on the other hand, call it quirky and say that I have a passion!

Thanks for showing this to us. It really is beautiful!

jess_hawk · #7 03-04-2009, 03:30 AM

Thanks!

I'll put up some spotted coralroot pics sometime, too.

musicloveranthony · #8 10-20-2009, 01:17 AM

These plants are not Cyp pubescens (greater [large flowered] yellow lady slipper). The sepals and petals on pubescens are much darker (brown) in color.

It's more likely Cypripedium parviflorum (lesser [small flowered] yellow lady slipper)

They're such beautiful plants! I'm glad you got to see them!