Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis

[neophyte]

I went hiking yesterday at Mt. Tamalpais – was a 1.5 hr drive and crossed the Golden Gate Bridge on the way there. Alcatraz was visible from the bridge; guess it was the fog was atypically sparse in the afternoon.

We only stayed for 1-1.5 hours; I wish we could have stayed longer but we did set out rather late in the afternoon. I thought we wouldn't find any flowers at all – the Calypso at Mt. Tamalpais start blooming in late February – but we ended up finding more than 80 all along one trail! Here are just a few pictures:












These are in the subtribe Calypsoinae, formerly tribe Calypsoeae, within the tribe Epidendreae. There are several other genera in the U.S. within the Calypsoinae, including Corallorhiza (coralroots), Aplectrum (Adam-and-eve or putty root), and Tipularia (crane-fly orchid). Another group of coralroots, genus Hexalectris, are within the Bletiinae.

C. bulbosa var. occidentalis is distinguished by a labellum spotted with light red. The other variety in the U.S. is var. americana, which has a plain lip (white or pink) with a "beard" of bright yellow trichomes. There is also a hybrid variety between var. occidentalis and var. americana known as (notho)var. kostiukiae, which our fellow orchidboard member Afid spectacularly photographed in this thread: Yard Orchids 2020

Hope you enjoyed!

[Roberta]

Totally wonderful! So great to see them in the wild! I have noticed many of my "tame" orchids blooming a month or 6 weeks later than normal this year. So perhaps the wild ones are reacting to the same weather patterns and running late. What a treat!

[Mr.Fakename]

I was making the exact same observation Roberta, I guess it's a worldwide phenomenon. Some populations that usually bloom around the end of March didn't even start to make their rosettes.

[camille1585]

Those are so beautiful! That must have been such a wonderful hike, seeing so many of them.

I also noticed everything is late this spring, but I read that it's only the case when comparing to recent years. The timing of spring this year actually corresponds to what was normal 40-50 years ago, at least for the netherlands.

[neophyte]

How interesting! It does seem like some plants are blooming a lot later than usual. Is it colder than normal in some areas? Or less water maybe?

And yes, such a treat! My dad likes to sometimes pretend to find an orchid to tease me, so when he actually found one of the first few flowers on the trail (he was in front of me) I was quite surprised...

[brianwstephens]

I loveeeee these! I’ve always looked for them on bikes but have never been successful. Thanks for sharing, gorgeous photos!