Until Next Time

Some final photos from our trip to Costa Rica...

Wait a second... that's not Costa rica, that's Colorado!  That's right, Colorado.  We had no idea there were beaches in the Centennial State.  This is Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest body of water located entirely within Colorado.  Blue Mesa Reservoir was created in the 1960's by damming the Gunnison River.

The photographs above and below are from the Hogback Ridge Trail in Boulder County, Colorado.  This trail runs through Xeric Tallgrass Prairie and reaches elevations that are within the montane ecosystem.

Below is a Sagebrush Steppe community in proximity to Antelope Creek near Gunnison, Colorado.

More Stagebrush Steppe is shown below.  This photograph is from Lost Canyon near Gunnison.

Another shot of Sagebrush Steppe from the same site is shown below.

We made a short stop at Roaring Judy Fish Hatchery to do some birding and were treated to a beautiful view of what I think of as a typical Colorado river.  This is the East River near Almont, Colorado. 

Below is a mountain view from near Mill Creek in Gunnison County.

A typical montane aspen-fir-spruce forest is shown below.  This photograph is from near Mill Creek in Gunnison County.

As we rose in elevation, the temperature dropped and we started seeing an accumulation of snow on the ground. 

Just as we did during our first trip to Colorado a few years ago, we had a great time and can't wait to get back.  Thanks to the Fairlees and to Lynn Cudlip for their hospitality and for showing us some great natural areas!

A Most Interesting Love Affair

Have you heard the story about the alga and the fungus that met and fell in love?  Sounds like a far-fetched fairy tale, doesn't it?  Amazingly, this actually happens naturally, regularly, and on every continent on Earth, and the results, called lichens, can be absolutely astonishing.  A lichen is the organism that results from the mutualistic, parasitic, or commensal relationship (called symbiosis) between a fungus and an alga or a cyanobacterium.

In no way do I claim to know lichens, but I had to take photographs of the nearly fluorescent lichens that we saw when in Colorado last month.  The bright yellow lichen in the photograph above may be an egg yolk lichen (Candelariella sp., possibly C. rosulans), and the resplendent orange lichen in the photograph below may be an elegant sunburst lichen (Xanthoria sp., possibly X. elegans).

Lichens often grow in seemingly uninhabitable places, such as on bare rock, tree trunks, and buildings. They are early succesional and help to create conditions more suitable for vascular plants.  Thank you, fungi and algae, for joining forces to produce the organisms that colonize bare rock, trap dust and water, and eventually help to create enough soil for my beloved vascular plants to grow in primary communities.

A Few Colorado Birds

We're still trying to get through our Colorado photos before moving back to more local posts.  After this post on some of the birds that we saw, I anticipate one or two more posts before returning to Indiana.

Black-billed Magpie

Although many birders travel to remote places of the world to see showy birds like Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao), there are plenty of showy, common birds right here in the United States.  Take, for example, the corvid above - the Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia).  In addition to the attractive royal blue, black, and white patterns, this very common bird of the western United States has a conspicuous tail that makes up half the length of the bird!  Black-billed Magpies are expanding their range eastward.  Like their American Crow, Blue Jay, and Common Raven relatives, Black-billed Magpies are smart birds.  They can sometimes be found landing on large mammals to eat the ticks off of them, or to remove ticks and cache them for later.  Insects that are hiding under rocks or logs beware... the Black-billed Magpie will flip objects to find prey.  They will also steel food from other birds, and are said to use scent to find food.  Around humans, Black-billed Magpies can be quite bold; Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reported them coming into tents and taking food from human hands.

Western Meadowlark

The song of the Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) has to be one of the most complex and musical of all of the western grassland and agricultural field birds. So characteristic and unique is the Western Meadowlark and its song that it is the state bird of six western states (only outdone by the Northern Cardinal, Cardinalis cardinalis, the state bird of seven states).  Until the late 1800s, the Western Meadowlark and Eastern Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) were considered a single species.  In 1888, using observations recorded in 1805 by Meriwether Lewis, including that the bill shape, tail shape, and song of the western variant of the "Oldfield Lark" was different from those of the eastern variant, John James Audubon described and published the new species.

Golden Eagle

One of the most majestic of the western birds is the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos).  I call this a western bird, but they are found to the Atlantic Coast in Canada, and they winter throughout the northern half of the eastern United States as well.  In addition, Golden Eagles are found in Eurasia and parts of Africa.  Mammals, fish, and birds of all sizes had better be on alert when a Golden Eagle is around; the list of prey of the Golden Eagle is diverse and includes fish, prairie dogs, hares, rabbits, ground squirrels, marmots, jackrabbits, cranes, swans, livestock, deer, seals, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, pronghorn, coyotes, badgers, and bobcats.

Townsend's Solitaire

Although the Townsend's Solitaire (Myadestes townsendi) isn't the flashiest of birds, seeing two individuals of this species was one of the birding highlights of our trip.  Found mostly in the western 1/2 to 1/3 of the continent, occasional individuals of this species wind up in northwest Indiana almost every winter.  Although they feed on different berries and insects in the summer, during the winter Townsend's Solitaires feed almost exclusively on female cones of junipers (Juniperus spp.).
 

Slate-colored Fox Sparrow

At our home in northern Indiana, we have seen Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca) feeding on the ground under our feeders in the winter.  The Fox Sparrow that we see in the eastern United States is the Red Fox Sparrow, aka Eastern Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca iliaca).  We weren't even aware that there were different forms of this species prior to our trip, so we were delighted to identify the bird in the photograph above as a Slate-colored Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca schistacea), the form that breeds from Brittish Columbia to Nevada and Colorado.  The two other forms of Fox Sparrow (Sooty Fox Sparrow [Passerella iliaca unalaschcensis] and Thick-billed Fox Sparrow [Passerella iliaca megarhyncha]) both have much narrower geographical ranges than the two former forms.

Spring in Boulder

It's hard to believe that it has almost been a month since Lindsay and I were on the front range in Boulder, Colorado.  While there, we hiked the Hogback Ridge Trail with Eric, Lisa, Julia, and Kyler Fairlee.

A majestic Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa)

This ~2 mile trail begins in xeric tallgrass prairie and inclines steeply into a montane community, rising in elevation several hundred feet.

Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla patens ssp. multifida)

One of the highlights of the hike was seeing Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla patens ssp. multifida), a plant I have wanted to see since moving to Indiana. For more information on this plant and for additonal photos, check out my post at Get Your Botany On!.

Common Starlily (Leucocrinum montanum)

With large, white, six tepaled flowers and sharply contrasting yellow-orange anthers, Common Starlily (Leucocrinum montanum) will stop you dead in your tracks (at least it stopped me... several times). Found in rocky and sandy soil in prairies, deserts, and open forests throughout the western United States, Sand Lily, as it is also known, completely withers away after flowering, and the fruiting capsule becomes buried amongst its finger-like roots.

Field Chickweed (Cerastium arvense)

Although many of the chickweeds are not native to the United States, Field Chickweed (Cerastium arvense) is native, and it occurs as one of a handful of varieties in open to partially shaded areas throughout most of North America and worldwide .  In fact, I saw this species flowering in northern Indiana today.

Prairie False Dandelion (Nothocalais cuspidata)

According to Eric, one of his favorite spring wildflowers on the front range is Prairie False Dandelion (Nothocalais cuspidata).  This showy composite is known from grasslands and prairies from Canada to Texas in the central 1/3 of North America.

Western Springbeauty (Claytonia rosea)

I always enjoy finding plants in another part of the country that resemble plants we have in the Great Lakes states.  Western Springbeauty (Claytonia rosea) was no exception.  This springbeauty has a range that is restricted to Montana, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico, where it grows on montane hillsides and mesas.

Northern Idaho Biscuitroot (Lomatium orientale)

And then there are the plants that are nothing like anything we have in the Great Lakes states but that have similar common names.  The plant above, sometimes referred to as Salt and Pepper (not to be confused with Erigenia bulbosa of the eastern United States), is in the carrot family (Apiaceae) and is an early bloomer with red anthers that contrast with the white petals.

Wax Currant (Ribes cereum)

I really like the genus Ribes, and it seems that I get to see a species new to me on every botanical vacation that I take.  On this trip, we found Wax Currant (Ribes cereum), a plant of the western United States.  Wax Currant grows in shrubby areas and open forests on rocky slopes and cliffs. 

Nuttall's Violet (Viola nuttallii)

The violets are a diverse group of related plants, with flowers ranging in color from blue to white to yellow, with leaves ranging in shap from lanceolate to heart-shaped to arrowhead shaped, and with or without stems.  Nuttall's Violet, named after famed 19th century English botanist and naturalist Thomas Nuttall, is certainly unique.  It is know from Idaho to Minnesota and south to New Mexico, where it occurs in prairies, grasslands, and open woodlands.

Hogback Ridge

Thanks to Eric and Lisa for taking us on this excellent early spring hike to see a great Colorado natural area.

Dumb Luck

When Linsday and I were but fledgling birders, we spent a lot of time birding with Tom Stankus.  Tom always had a saying about birding... that finding birds was "dumb luck."  As Lindsay and I got better at birding and I started to learn bird songs, we started to wonder if birding really was just dumb luck, or if there was more skill to finding birds. 

Fast forward to last week, when Lindsay and I were in Gunnison, Colorado.  On Wednesday morning, Lindsay and I left our friend Lynn Cudlip's house under cover of darkness at 5:00 AM to get to the Waunita Watchable Wildlife Site by 5:52 AM, in hopes of seeing the extremely rare Gunnison Sage Grouse (Centrocercus minimus) performing mating rituals.  This site is the location of a known Gunnison Sage Grouse lek, or a gathering of males where competitive breeding displays take place, and it is closely monitored by the group Sisk-a-dee.  There are some fairly strict guidelines for watching the Gunnison Sage Grouse lek at the Waunita site, including that you must arrive at least an hour before sunrise.  From what we were told, this was our only chance to see this ultra-rare bird conducting its breeding ritual.

So we arrived and sat silently in our chilly car as a cloudless 20 degree dawn rubbed its weary eyes.  Little by little, we were able to begin to see the fence posts that are located near the middle of the lek.  The fence posts were several hundred yards away, and it was still rather dark, but we weren't seeing any birds.  Then, at about 6:40 (ten minutes before sunrise), the volunteer at the site came to our window and asked if we'd seen the birds.  WHAT?!  They were there?!  She proceeded to tell us that she saw 14 birds for a couple of minutes before they left the area in groups of two and three.  No!  We got there that early and missed them??  Because Gunnison Sage Grouse sometimes display for up to two hours after sunrise, we kept watching, deliriously hopeful that the birds would return, or that some of them hadn't left, but sadly there no birds in the seemingly lifeless field.  The volunteer left the site at around 6:50 AM.

We still had a full day of birding ahead of us, so we decided to start driving the dusty county roads to see what we could find.  A couple of miles from the Waunita site, while driving through Mountain Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. vaseyana) habitat, I spotted a white spec 100 yards or so off the road.

A distant Wal-Mart bag?

I have a habit of finding "leafbirds," "debrisbirds," and recently even a shadow on a distant tree that I thought could be an owl before using binoculars, so I almost didn't bother stopping for the spec.  It was still early in the day, though, and we didn't have anywhere to be, so I figured I should stop and take a look.  After initially thinking that the spec would be a plastic bag or a Styrofoam cup, as I was bringing my binoculars to my eyes I thought that the spec could possibly be a Black-billed Magpie (Pica hudsonia), one of the commonest birds that we had been seeing on our trip.  Then, as my eyes began to focus through my binoculars, I realized that the spec had a robust convex shape, and as soon as I saw this my heart started pumping more rapidly.  I told Lindsay to take a look and see what she thought, and then we saw that the object was moving.  Then I saw the tail... through dumb luck, we had found a displaying Gunnison Sage Grouse!!

Definitely not a distant Wal-Mart bag!  Click on the photos in this post to see them larger and in more detail.

Scanning the landscape, I soon found a second displaying male Gunnison Sage Grouse, even closer to the road than the first.  We sat in the car silently and admired these large chicken-like birds with spiky tails for at least 20 minutes until they vanished into the thick sagebrush cover.

We couldn't believe that we'd found one Gunnison Sage Grouse... and then we found a second.  We had happened upon a lek!

Researchers estimate that there are only ~5000 Gunnison Sage Grouse left, all known from a small area in southwestern Colorado and extreme southeastern Utah.  Until the 1970s, the species was unknown to science, as those birds found in southwestern Colorado and southeastern Utah were thought to be Greater Sage Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus).  After conducting research on the differences between Gunnison Sage Grouse and Greater Sage Grouse, the species was described in 2000.  The ranges of the two species do not overlap, and Gunnison Sage Grouse is smaller with a shorter tail and larger filoplume (the long, hairlike feathers on the back of the sage grouse's head).  In addition, the mating displays of the two species are different; the display of the Gunnison Sage Grouse includes constantly raising the filoplume, and the dispay ends with a sassy tail-shaking motion.

A handsome male Gunnison Sage Grouse struts his stuff.

Habitat loss of greater than 90% has led to rapidly declining populations of Gunnison Sage Grouse to the point that only 8 populations remain and the species is a candidate for listing under the Federal Endangered Species Act.  Within the extant populations, the number of birds is also decreasing.  This truly is an at-risk species, leading to National Audubon Society placing it on their red watchlist.

Above you can view a video that we shot of a displaying Gunnison Sage Grouse (click on the icon in the bottom right to view the video fullscreen).  Without a healthy dose of dumb luck, we never would have seen these amazing birds.  In fact, thanks to dumb luck, we were able to see them at a closer range and in better light than we would have had we seen them where we planned to at the Waunita lek.  Sure, birding takes some skill, but sometimes, like Tom used to say, all that you need is "dumb luck."

A Hallmark of Hanging Lake

With as busy as I'm becoming and spring certainly around the corner (I have heard Eastern Bluebird, Red-winged Blackbird, and Sandhill Crane while walking our trails the last two evenings after work), this will probably be my final post about our trip to Colorado in July 2009. There were many more topics that I had hoped to cover, but I just don't have time, unfortunately.


On 14 July 2009, we visited Glenwood Canyon near Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The preserve is located in the montane life zone and includes forest that has a remarkably eastern feel to it, with many genera and species of plants that were very recognizable to this Indiana botanist. The steep cliffs and canyon walls quickly bring you back to the reality that you're definitely not in the Midwest.

Hanging Lake is the primary attraction at this location. As the name implies, Hanging Lake is positioned on the side of a canyon. The lake has formed after thousands of years of limestone precipitating from calcareous waters that are flowing down the mountain and over rocks and logs. The resulting travertine layers eventually formed a bowl-like feature that now cradles the clearest water I've ever seen.


Along our ascent as we approached the lake, we continually encountered a comely columbine (Aquilegia) with pink sepals and yellow petal blades that didn't match the columbines in any of the reference guides we had with us. We took numerous photographs thinking that we would need to see all aspects of this species to be able to property identify it later that evening.


Fortunately, we didn't have to wait that long. When we arrived at the lake itself, we encountered an informational sign identifying this curious columbine as Barneby's Columbine (Aquilegia barnebyi), a plant only known from two locations in the world - Hanging Lake and in Rio Blanco County in northwestern Colorado. We had no idea that this species, so abundant at this location, would have been so rare overall. At Glenwood Canyon, we saw Oil Shale Columbine, as it is also known, in forest, around Hanging Lake, and in a boggy seep (shown below).


Oil Shale Columbine is now also known from Utah, but is still considered endemic to the Green River drainage; it grows on cliff walls and on moist, calcareous soils (Whittemore 1997).

Whittemore, A.T. (1997). Aquilegia. In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 15+ vols. New York and Oxford. Vol. 3.

All Clovers Are Not Created Equal

Here in Indiana, clovers (Trifolium spp.) don't get people very excited. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that a clover of any kind is one of their favorite plants. In fact, these legumes with three leaflets are often shunned as evil lawn weeds, and many a suburban homeowner spend hundreds of dollars per year applying herbicides to remove the clover and cultivate a bluegrass monoculture. Recently, however, there has been a movement to replace or at least enhance turf grass lawns with clovers, which take nitrogen from the atmosphere and make this natural fertilizer available to other plants.


Around here, our most common clovers are Red Clover (Trifolium pratense, above), White Clover (Trifolium repens, below), and Alsike Clover (Trifolium hybridum). While the individual flowers are humbly attractive when viewed up close, most people do not give them a second glance when in their heavily degraded and anthropogenically altered habitats of old field, pasture, roadside, and lawn.


Enter the clovers of Colorado. Never before had I really been "wowed" by a clover, nor did I think I could be, but these fantastic Fabaceae seemed like they were from another world. All three of the following species are native to Colorado and endemic to the Rocky Mountains.


Parry's Clover (Trifolium parryi, above) is a plant found only in a fairly narrow band through the Rocky Mountain states (Southwest Colorado Wildflowers 2010) that can be found growing commonly in the subalpine and alpine life zones (Guennel 2004). This species often grows in dense clumps or cushions with leafless flowering stalks (Beidleman et al. 2000). While the "plainest" looking of the three clovers that we saw on our July 2009 trip, this clover puts all of the Midwestern clovers that I've seen to shame.


The next most impressive clover species that we saw was Alpine Clover (Trifolium dasyphyllum), shown immediately above and below. Like the previous species, Alpine Clover is common in a fairly narrow band through the Rocky Mountain states (Southwest Colorado Wildflowers 2010), found growing in tundra and on rocky or gravelly slopes in the subalpine and alpine life zones (Guennel 2004).


The flowers of Alpine Clover can sometimes be all rose or violet-purple (Southwest Colorado Wildflowers 2010), but the more common bicolored form shown in the photos above is quite stunning, especially for a clover.


Finally, Dwarf Clover (Trifolium nanum), which puts all other clovers to shame in terms of appearance, in my opinion, is shown above. Another species of restricted range similar to the previous two species (Southwest Colorado Wildflowers 2010), this clover has only 1-3 flowers per cluster; each flower is approximately 2 cm long, but the entire plant lives up to its common name and grows in a cushion up to only 6 cm tall (Beidleman et al. 2000). Dwarf Clover is found in meadows, on gravelly slopes, and on rocky ridges in the subalpine and alpine life zones (Guennel 2004).

Beidleman, L.H., R.G. Beidleman, & B.E. Willard. (2000). Plants of Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park, Colorado: Rocky Mountain Nature Association; Helena, Montana: Falcoln Publishing, Inc.

Guennel, G.K. (2004). Guide to Colorado Wildflowers, Volume 2: Mountains. Englewood, Colorado: Westcliffe Publishers.

Southwest Colorado Wildflowers. Retrieved February 12, 2010. http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/.

Colorado Castilleja

Last May on Get Your Botany On!, I posted about Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea) that I had seen recently in Lake County, Indiana. Although I had witnessed this species with bracts of three different color morphs (red, orange, and yellow) over the years, until July I had only seen one of the approximately 200 worldwide species (Southwest Colorado Wildflowers 2010) from this showy genus. That quickly changed when we went to Colorado in July, as I multiplied my life list of Castilleja species by five.

In the photographs below, you will see that Castilleja possesses showy "flowers." I put "flowers" in quotes because the showy structures are actually bracts, which are modified leaves. The corolla (petals) are actually inconspicuous and mostly greenish yellow, and are hidden beneath the large bracts. If you look closely, you'll be able to see the true flowers in some of the photographs below.


The first new paintbrush that we saw was in a prairie at Jewel Mountain near Boulder. The photograph above shows Orange Paintbrush (Castilleja integra). This species is known in the United States only from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado (USDA, NRCS 2010). Known also as Wholeleaf Indian Paintbrush, the leaves of this species are unlobed; in fact, the specific epithet integra means "whole" (Southwest Colorado Wildflowers 2010). Orange Paintbrush can be found growing in the plains, foothills, and montane life zones of Colorado, and is said to be the most common paintbrush in the plains of Colorado (Guennel 2004; Southwest Colorado Wildflowers 2010). The densely tomentose stem is a key feature used to identify this species (Weber 1976).


Along the road near Independence Pass, we stopped the car to photograph Scarlet Paintbrush (Castilleja miniata), also known as Giant Red Indian Painbrush. This species is known from the western United States, and from Canada east to Ontario (USDA, NRCS 2010). In Colorado, it grows in the foothills, montane, and subalpine life zones (Guennel 2004). This species is said to be the most common and variable member of the genus Castilleja in Colorado (Weber 1976).


My favorite paintbrush of our trip was Rosy Paintbrush (Castilleja rhexiifolia), shown above. This photograph was taken at Independence Pass. Also known as Splitleaf Indian Paintbrush, this species is known from states west of the Rocky Mountains (except California and Arizona), as well as from Brittish Columbia and Alberta (USDA, NRCS 2010). You can find this beautiful paintbrush with bracts of indescribable colors in the subalpine and alpine life zones of Colorado (Guennel 2004). This species, as well as others in the genus Castilleja, is well known for its propensity to hybridize with other members of the genus (Southwest Colorado Wildflowers 2010).


Also at Independence Pass, we saw one of the two whitish-bracted species of paintbrush that we saw on our trip, Western Paintbrush (Castilleja occidentalis). Western Paintbrush has a similar range to the preceding species, but is more confined to areas along the Rocky Mountains (USDA, NRCS 2010). This species grows in the subalpine and alpine life zones of Colorado (Guennel 2004), and is distinguished from the next species in part by its shorter height (up to 20 cm tall) (Weber 1976). Like other paintbrushes, this species is hemiparasitic, meaning that it sometimes obtains nutrients from the roots of nearby plants (Southwest Colorado Wildflowers 2010).


The other species of paintbrush that we saw with whitish bracts was Yellow Paintbrush (Castilleja sulphurea). This photograph was taken at Holy Cross Wilderness Area. Sulphur Indian Paintbrush, as it is also known, has a similar range to the two preceding species (USDA, NRCS 2010). It can be found in the plains, montane, and subalpine life zones of Colorado, and is distinguished from the previous species in part by its taller height (20 cm to 40 cm) (Weber 1976).

Now that I've seen approximatetly 3% of the known species of Castilleja, I can't wait to see the diversity and colorful bracts of the other 97%!

Guennel, G.K. (2004). Guide to Colorado Wildflowers, Volume 1: Plains and Foothills. Englewood, Colorado: Westcliffe Publishers.

Guennel, G.K. (2004). Guide to Colorado Wildflowers, Volume 2: Mountains. Englewood, Colorado: Westcliffe Publishers.

Southwest Colorado Wildflowers. Retrieved January 16, 2010. http://www.swcoloradowildflowers.com/.

USDA, NRCS. 2010. The PLANTS Database (http://plants.usda.gov/, 10 January 2010). National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA 70874-4490 USA.

Weber, W.A. (1976). Rocky Mountain Flora. Niwot, Colorado: University Press of Colorado

The Search for Coeloglossum

For several years while botanizing in Indiana, I had hoped to run across Frog Orchid (Coeloglossum viride). Vegetatively, this species can be confused with Palegreen Orchid (Platanthera flava var. herbiola) or even Broadleaf Helleborine (Epipactis helleborine). There have been a couple of times in the past when I thought I might have finally found this elusive, intriguing orchid, but it was not in flower so I could never be sure. Who knew that my search would be satisfied by freak chance in Colorado? In July 2009, at Holy Cross Wilderness Area when our vehicle was broken down, I was botanizing the area while waiting for Eric to return when I happened upon my long-time target.


Called Frog Orchid because the Gene Simmons tongue-like lip apparently resembles a frog hopping into cover (you'll need a little imagination to see this), Long-bracted Green Orchid, as it is also known, grows in the forests, meadows, and bogs in the montane and subalpine life zones in Colorado (Beidleman et al. 2000; Weber 1976). It is found worldwide with a circumpolar distribution (Sheviak & Catling 2002). In North America, Frog Orchid is known from most of Canada, Alaska, and the northern half of the continental United States east of the Rocky Mountains; it is also known less commonly from a few western states (NatureServe 2010). Its habitat includes moist to wet forests, thickets, bogs, prairies, and tundra (Sheviak & Catling 2002).


The photograph above shows a Frog Orchid plant in bloom. As you can see, the plant can be easily overlooked, as the green flowers blend in well with the surroundings.


Coeloglossum means "hollow tongue;" the genus was named for the hollow pouch-like nectary below the base of the flower lip (Homoya 1993). Some authors have now moved this only member of the genus Coeloglossum to the genus Dactylorhiza (in which case it is called Dactylorhiza viridis). Dactylorhiza literally means "finger root;" the roots of this species consist of several palmate tubers (Case 1987) that as a result look something like fingers. The long bracts subtending greenish flowers (seen above) are the source of the common name Long-bracted Green Orchid.


Frog Orchid is rare in these parts and can be difficult to see in shady forests. Be sure to watch for it in mature woods in late spring and summer.

Beidleman, L.H., R.G. Beidleman, & B.E. Willard. (2000). Plants of Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park, Colorado: Rocky Mountain Nature Association; Helena, Montana: Falcoln Publishing, Inc.

Case, F.W. Jr. (1987). Orchids of the Western Great Lakes Region. Bloomfield Hills, Michigan: Cranbrook Institute of Science.

Homoya, M.A. (1993). Orchids of Indiana. Bloomington & Indianapolis, Indiana: Indaian Academy of Science.

NatureServe. (2010). NatureServe Explorer: An online encyclopedia of life [web application]. Version 7.1. NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia. Available http://www.natureserve.org/explorer. (Accessed: January 21, 2010 ).

Sheviak, C.J. & P.M. Catling. (2002). Coeloglossum. In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee, eds. 1993+. Flora of North America North of Mexico. 15+ vols. New York and Oxford. Vol. 26.

Weber, W.A. (1976). Rocky Mountain Flora. Niwot, Colorado: University Press of Colorado.