A Brand New Orchid!

Can you believe it? We’ve discovered a brand new orchid species for Wahkeena! Confirmed as Spiranthes ovalis or Oval Ladies’ Tresses or Lesser Ladies’ Tresses. It is a fall bloomer and has some of the smallest flowers out of all the other Ladies’ Tresses. Because the one we found was past peak bloom, I do not have a good picture of it to show you! So click here for some photos from Andrew Gibson’s excellent blog, The Natural Treasures of Ohio. The photos of S. ovalis are about halfway down that particular post. While we’ve only found one plant so far, if you’ve read any of the other posts on orchids, you know that there are probably more. I’ve decided that orchids are equipped with cloaking devices and that’s why there are so hard to find!  🙂 It will be very exciting when next fall rolls around to see if this particular plant will bloom again. For those of you who are keeping track, this is orchid number 11 found at Wahkeena!