Colorado Orchids
 

I'm new to the whole wild orchid thing but I found my first today. Platanthera dilatata, the white bog orchid. I was wondering if there are other Colorado folks on here that pursue wild orchids and if you have any tips for a newbie. I think it's already starting to get late in the season.

Awesome find!

Awsome!

Ron Hanko knows a lot of these and spends time searching them out, though I think he might be further northwest than you. I think he's not been on the board the last few weeks as he's been busy but if you are interested take a look at his blogs.

There are the three blogs he has in is orchid board signature. The first and third are the ones that show his hunting for wild orchids.

Serendipity and Orchids
Orchids in Bloom
Native Orchids of the Pacific Northwest and the Canadian Rockies

Nice find indeed! I've got to get out for more hikes, I'd love to see a native orchid in the wild.

I see you are in Carbondale, but there is a lovely 10 mile hike near Nederland called Moffat's tunnel: East Portal/Moffat Tunnel Trailhead : Trailhead Information : SummitPost

Lots of flowers and probably orchids too!

Joy

Thanks Rosie. He's quite a bit northwest of me. They've got much wetter, costal type climate up there.

Have you been up there Joy? I do a lot of walking in the alpine zone and see a lot of wildflowers, but haven't seen many orchids. Have you found many native Colorado orchids yourself? I that white bog orchid up in routt county.

I only recently caught "orchid fever", but 2 years ago in late August I did that hike and I recall seeing a lot of weird flowers that could have been. It has spectacular wild flowers too!

I'm in Utah and I found a ton of these guys Platanthera dilatata. at least 40 of them in the same spot, up in the Uinta's. It was pretty cool, next to a stream they were everywhere but i didn't have a camera with me so i couldn't take pictures..

Yeah. The spot I found them there were a ton of them interspersed with elephant heads. I'd like to find some other species though.