Life of Calypso bulbosa var. americana in North
 

Calypso bulbosa has a wide geographic distribution, and the distribution covers lots of latitude. In south (e.g. California), I believe it is summer dormant. I have been wondering about the life history of this species in the North (I'm in interior Alaska). So I've tried to visit our neighbor population as frequently as possible. My son, who just became 3, is quite a bit of naturalist, so he is always excited to visit the site (well, his main motivation might have been to throw pebbles into the pond near the population).

First, photos of the flowers (I think I posted these previously, and these are not from this year):
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5533/...831d607c_c.jpg
Nymph, on Flickr

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7420/...324d6dab_c.jpg
gathering of nymphs, on Flickr


May 4
The next photo is about 2 weeks after snow-melt. The plants appear to overwinter with the leaf out, and the flower bud is ready to expand. They are probably insulated by snow in winter, and may not experience below -10C even though the air temp can go down to -40C.
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3922/...4125f08d_c.jpg
May 4, on Flickr

May 26
The flowers develop really quickly, and it flowers within a month of snow melt. It is actually near the end of flowering season. The photo is taken at a different population from the one near my house, but these two populations are pretty close to each other.
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5596/...4a15085a_c.jpg
May 26, on Flickr

July 17
Fruits are formed. I think the dehiscence of the fruits occurred in the beginning of August. So it is about 2.3 months after blooming. Note that the leaves (which were produced during the last summer/fall) are becoming yellow.
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3866/...1548dd7e_c.jpg
July 17, on Flickr

At the same time, a new leave for next year is starting to expand.
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3861/...d07c8d3f_c.jpg
July 17, on Flickr

Sept. 18
The new leaf is fully expanded. A flower bud for the next year is already formed. Within 2 more weeks, the daily min. temp will hit the freezing point (0C). Plants are likely to be under snow by the end of October. The shoulder season is the time when plants can experience extreme temperature.

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3839/...060d72bf_c.jpg
Sept. 18, on Flickr

Detail of the flower bud for the next spring.
https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3923/...aa72497a_c.jpg
Sept. 18, on Flickr


Overall, the growth pattern in the north appears to be similar to the pattern of southern plants. I've not observed this species in south, so I do not know what they do during the hot summer (are they really dormant with no green leaves?). In north, the renewal of leaves occurs during the summer, but they appear to have green leaves always in the summer. It makes sense because the plants have to go through rapid growth in the short growing season of interior Alaska. Life is intense in North!

Interesting!

Fascinating!

I've always wanted one of these! They apparently grow in the Sierra Nevadas as well where we have a ski house but I've never encountered one :(

It is very difficult species to grow, Brian. It has almost no root, and it probably gets lots of help from mycorrhizae. You can buy seeds if you want to try. CA subspecies appear to be dormant in the summer, so you have to look for them in early summer.

Your observations are borne out here, Naoki:

Fairy slipper orchid videos, photos and facts - Calypso bulbosa | ARKive

Thank you for the link, Paul! So according to the link, it seems that there is a brief late summer dormancy in Minnesota (I think they are var. americana there). AK plants probably have minimized this dormancy.

They are dependent on mycorrhizae to some degree. The roots are extremely negligible, only 2 roots on average per bulb. The roots are smooth, thin, brittle, and white in color. Each root is about 3 cm long, (which is actually the longest root I've ever seen on a specimen, they are usually a bit shorter).

The life cycle is the same for the var occidentals variety.

The other problem is that they don't tolerate being over 80 F - 85 F very well. This is their max, period. They experience problems above this temperature range. Which might suggest that the temperatures underground where they grow actually stays intermediate in temperature during the summer. The air temperature can shoot up to 100 F, but underground, the temperatures are nowhere near this. It is very clear that these are cool to intermediate growing, they are not the least bit warmth tolerant at all. It does not have to be icy cold to be able to have them grow well, they grow just fine in SoCal in the fall, winter, and spring. Summer is always, always, always the problem.

I was almost successful with over summering these buggers until we caught a heatwave and the whole lot of them died off one-by-one.

The ground also stays barely damp. They don't like to be wet during dormancy.

I have yet to figure out how to properly store them for the summer.

Really beautiful!