Wildflowers and Orchids on Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands

April 11th we managed to get away for the day - our day out that week - and visited a number of sites on Whidbey and Fidalgo Islands looking for orchids and other wildflowers and found plenty of both.  The day was overcast and wet when we arrived at our first stop but the rain soon went away and though the sun did not come out it was a good day for wildflower photography.

We found the Western Fairy Slippers still blooming at several locations and the Western Spotted Coralroots just starting to bloom.  At one location found a few plants of the red form of the Western Heart-leaved Twayblade and at another several plants of the albino form of the Western Fairy Slipper.  Along with them we found an abundance of other flowers.

raindrops on everything

raindrops on Camas

Fairy Slippers

Heart-leaved Twayblade

Spotted Coralroot

British Soldier Lichens

Panther Cap

Seep-spring Monkeyflower

Woodrush

Miner's Lettuce

Sea Blush

 Giant Blue-eyed Mary

Chocolate Lilies

Fawn Lilies

Field Chickweed

Few-flowered Shooting Star

Common Camas

Fairy Slippers

white Fairy Slippers

Spotted Coralroots

Washington Park

I made two more trips to Washington Park recently.  I had to be in Mount Vernon, Washington, on Tuesday evening, May 24th, and went first for a couple of hours to see if the Fairy Slippers were still blooming and if the Coralroots had opened.  I was not disappointed either by the weather or the flowers.

I found both, a few Fairy Slippers still at their prime and numerous Coralroots at the peak of their blooming.  These leafless, saprophytic orchids always fascinate me, not only for their lack of chlorophyll but for their unpredictability.  One never knows quite where they will spring up and how many there will be.

 

The Chocolate Lilies (Fritillaria affinis) were also in bloom and though relatively common were a delight to see once again.  The Madrone trees were also putting out new growth and flowers, the flowers white and the new growth a soft green and pink, neither of which I had seen before.

One the second trip on May 27, I went with my wife and son and we not only saw the Coralroots and the Chocolate Lilies, but were privileged to watch a number of eagles both immature and adult in the trees and in the air near the south end of the park.  The Fairy Slippers, however, were gone.

For the rest we enjoyed the scenery, the boats, the thunderheads building in the east, and the glorious sunshine of which we have seen far too little this spring.  We took several hours walking the two miles around the park and then headed home for a bit of supper and a quiet evening.