Category Archives: wildflowers

Ghost plant

  This somewhat uncommon flower has given me a great deal of trouble. It wasn’t due to the behaviour of the flower itself, which is unusual, but straight forward. It was due to the name it has had: the Indian … Continue reading

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Striped coralroot

  The striped coralroot orchid is widespread across southern Canada and western U.S. However, it is sparse throughout its range for it does not use leaves to synthesize food but obtains it nutrients from fungi in the ground.   This orchid … Continue reading

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Fairy slipper deception

  Our first orchid of the year, the fairy slipper (Calypso bulbosa) is beautiful, but remarkably deceptive. There is a nearly universal contract between pollinators (such as bees) and flowers: The bees provide the flowers with pollination in exchange for … Continue reading

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August’s goulash

  This is a collection of August’s pictures that lacked a posting of their own.  This strange looking bird is just a juvenile Robin. Wintering in the Amazon, this Red-eyed Vireo is near the limit of its summer range. The … Continue reading

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June’s goulash

  This is a collection of June’s pictures that lacked a posting of their own.  June began with a dipper feeding a bug to one of it three chicks. This purple virgin’s-bower (Clematis occidentalis) is a western flower. If one … Continue reading

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Two more wild orchids

  On June 9th I posted two local wild orchids: the fairy slipper and the lady’s slipper. Each stalk had but one flower. Here are two more local wild orchids, but here the stalks contain many flowers: they are racemes. … Continue reading

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Two wild orchids

  We have a number of wild orchids, but they grow at different times. The fairy slipper has come and gone, but the lady’s slipper presented itself today. Although I said there were two wild orchids, the fairy slipper comes … Continue reading

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Glacier lily

  One of the first flowers to grow in the spring is the glacier lily. It is often to be seen growing on the edge of a retreating band of snow where the ground becomes very moist. It is mainly … Continue reading

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Round-leaf Orchid

  Karen Pidcock guided me to a group of these orchids high on a mossy bank above the Kaslo river. I believe they are large round-leaf rein orchids, Platanthera orbiculata. (The small round leaf orchid is a different plant.) This … Continue reading

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Local tigers

  Almost simultaneously, the tigers have arrived. They are: a tiger beetle, a tiger butterfly, and a tiger lily. I have commented previously, somewhat whimsically, on our rather odd naming conventions for species: butter sipping (on butterflies and buttercups); horned … Continue reading

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