Striped Coralroot

This is the second photo posted this morning that the description "vanished" as soon as I had finished it. This is another photo from my archives, taken on 27 June 2011, at Bow Valley Provincial Park, W of Calgary, at the foot of the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. I always think the tiny, individual flowers of this wild Orchid are so pretty, especially when seen in macro size.

"Corallorhiza striata is a species of orchid known by the common names striped coralroot and hooded coralroot. This flowering plant is widespread across much of Canada and Mexico, as well as the northern and western United States. It lives in the layer of decaying plant matter on the ground in forested regions, obtaining nutrients from fungi via mycoheterotrophy.

Like other coralroot orchids, it has reduced leaves and no chlorophyll and relies upon its parasitism of the fungi for sustenance. This coralroot has an erect stem which may be red, pink, purple, or yellow-green to almost white. It is mostly made up of an inflorescence of orchid flowers. Each flower is an open array of sepals and similar-looking petals which may be pink or yellowish and have darker pink or maroon stripes. Inside the flower is a column formed from the fusion of male and female parts, which may be spotted with purple or red." From Wikipedia.