Calypso bulbosa and associates, Banff National Park, mid-June

[Lori S.]

My sister visited and we stayed the weekend in Banff National Park, sight-seeing and botanizing the various roadside sites...  
Calypso bulbosa was starting into bloom in the Lake Louise area at montane elevations - unfortunately, we didn't see the thousands of Calypso flowers that I promised my sister (the bloom was incredible a couple of years ago!) but we saw enough, nonetheless, to feel quite privileged!    
It was early for orchids, this year, though my sister also spotted a couple of round-leaved orchids (Orchis rotundifolia) at another spot - I'll have to ask her to send pix, as my camera had mysteriously quit working by that time (I think I have one bad battery, of the two).  >

1 - 4, 6) Calypso bulbosa
5) We also found a couple of white-flowered individuals in one little colony.

[Lori S.]

Some other plants we enjoyed seeing, these from the boggy shores of Hector Lake...
1) Rubus arcticus ssp. acaulis - one rose-coloured flower is just starting to open amidst the beautiful fresh foliage.
2 - 5) Thought they were violets at first glance... but with a closer look, we realized there were nice little colonies of one of our common insectivorous plants, butterwort, Pinguicula vulgaris, in bloom there too.  The last photo shows the little pale green rosettes that are often the most noticeable feature of this little plant.
6) Pedicularis groenlandica is very attractive even before the charming elephant-head flowers emerge!

A few more to follow tomorrow...

[Hoy]

I have always wished to find Calypso bulbosa in the woods here. It is though very uncommon and you have to go far east in Norway (or to Sweden and Russia) to find them. The Norwegian name is "Norne".

Rubus arcticus (Åkerbær) too is a native plant but in the north of Norway. I have never seen this one wild either. A cross between R. arcticus and R. stellatus (R. x stellarcticus) is grown as a garden berry.

The "Tettegras" Pinguicula vulgaris is a common plant here particularly in the mountains. The leaves have been used in milk to "tette melka"  = to make the milk sour and cheese-like (do not know the English term here!).               

Pedicularis is a genus  we often encounter here but not P. groenlandica! A pretty plant!                         

[Lori S.]

Some scenery and more plants...
1, 2) The highway view of Crowfoot Glacier with Bow Lake in the foreground, and a zoom-in to show small avalanches/sloughs on Crowfoot Glacier
3) Snow at highway elevation at Bow Summit, ~2070m.
4 - 8 ) Just south of Bow Summit, a broad glacial valley - the headwaters of the Bow River, which is just a narrow creek at this point - that contains a rich subalpine meadow with dense growths of Trollius albiflorus, Claytonia lanceolata, and various knee-high Salix (which I am hopeless at identifying!) that were in bloom and just starting to leaf out.
9 - 10) Trollius albiflorus

[Lori S.]

1 - 3) Claytonia lanceolata
4) Scenery
5 - 8 ) Beautiful Salix catkins - densely white until the colourful stamens/pistils(?) emerge
9-10) These shots show the terrific density of flowers - wonderful!

[Todd Boland]

Great show Lori!  It has been so long since I've been to Calgary in June.  However, I will be there in mid-July!  I am hoping to make a trip to Glacier and the Highway to the Sun (or whatever name it goes by)...should be peak of alpine season then.  Hopefully we will get a chance to meet and have an extended coffee!

[IMYoung]

Lori... thanks for sharing these super plants with us.
I am greatly enamoured of Calypso bulbosa and the thought of them in any quantity is causing hyperventilation!  

 M.Y.

[Lori S.]

You're welcome.  A few last photos...
1) Orchis rotundifolia
2, 3) Petasites spp., just in flower at the boggy edge of Bow Lake
4, 5) Dryas drummondii just starting to flower, in the usual roadside mats
6) Also, the earliest Dryas octopetala...
7) Dodecatheon pulchellum(?) - the only photo of many that turned out!  
8  ) And a final Calypso bulbosa

[Hoy]

Lots of nice pictures, Lori! You have once more convinced me that I have to take a long holiday in Canada and look for myself!

[McDonough]

Lori, do you grow Dryas drummondii in the garden?  The close-up views of the yellow flowers with red hairs sure look attractive.  have you ever found natural hybrids between it and octopetala?

[IMYoung]

 The close-up views of the yellow flowers with red hairs sure look attractive.  have you ever found natural hybrids between it and octopetala?

The natural hybrid between D. drummondii and D. octopetala is, of course,
 called Dryas x suendermannii and there is a super photo of it here in the NARGS wiki by Todd Boland...
  http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-browse_image.php?imageId=453

[McDonough]

 The close-up views of the yellow flowers with red hairs sure look attractive.  have you ever found natural hybrids between it and octopetala?

The natural hybrid between D. drummondii and D. octopetala is, of course,
 called Dryas x suendermannii and there is a super photo of it here in the NARGS wiki by Todd Boland...
  http://www.nargs.org/nargswiki/tiki-browse_image.php?imageId=453

That is a super photo that Todd took and posted to the NARGS photo galleries (reminds me, I should be doing the same, posting to the gallery).  Maggi, thanks for jogging my memory, it was easier to say drummondii and octopetala hybrid as I was drawing a blank on the natural hybrid name... been sniffing too many alliums  

[Lori S.]

Mark, I only grow D. octopetala in the garden at present.  I've never seen anything in the wild that I suspected to a be hybrid between the two... but, heck, I only just noticed D. integrifolia last summer (I think!?), so there's no telling whether I'd even recognize a hybrid between the other species!    In the areas where we hike, the two species usually seem to be separated by a considerable elevation range... though I suppose if bees travel miles, it's certainly possible for hybrids to occur.  Roadsides, into the higher elevations, seem to bring the two species into proximity, though.
At any rate, hybrids between D. octopetala and D. drummondii aren't noted in Flora of Alberta, for whatever reason.  It is noted that hybridization occurs between D. octopetala and D. integrifolia here, though.

[Howey]

Back tracking a bit but wanted to say how much I enjoyed seeing your pictures of Calypso bulbosa, Lori.  Coming from Victoria, BC, have wanted to grow some of the plants from out that way for quite a while - such as C. bulbosa and the native Dogwood (different from the eastern Cornus florida).  Did bring home the little orchid in a pot one time (a cousin owned a woodlot where it grew) and almost got it flowering until the emerging bud was cruelly cut down by a miserable cutworm.  However, I'm on my way out to Victoria next week and am still looking??  Another cousin told me of a Calypso bulbosa website in Mendocino county, California.  They export the seed ($20 including shipping and handling for 300 seeds) - no phyto required.  There are instructions about its propogation.  Also remember bringing home some of the very special Dias orchids in agar, bought quite cheaply from Kirstenbosch Garden in Capetown.  But, unfortunately, no luck.  I think they are "fire friendly" plants.  The people at Fraser's Thimble Farm on Saltspring Island told my cousin they don't carry it as it is too difficult to propagate.  Fran

[James R.]

I know that Calypso bulbosa would be very difficult to grow from seed unless you have the mycorrhizal fungi and sometimes multiple types that it has to have in the protocorm tissue for the seed to sprout.
Most Calypso bulbosa are wild dug and will perish unless you can keep the Mycorrhiza alive. They grow in the Pacific Coast mountains all over and flower from March-June depending on elevation.