4.19.2010

leafy dreams

 Yesterday's hike was notable for the views and for the wild flowers. Here are a couple of my favorites; if anyone can identify, I'd love to know what they are. Especially this one: an orchid? In the Columbia River Gorge of Washington State?

Here's another photo: it's growing right out of the ground, in a shady area covered in in pine needles.
My creative writing students wrote haikus, and I thought I'd share my favorite one:

In a tree I sleep
dreaming my leafy dreams
then I fly away.

2 comments:

  1. not sure about the other two, but that is indeed a calypso orchid, a.k.a. fairy slipper. i saw one when i was hiking around the forest last may...here's my post about it: http://yourapplesaremyoranges.blogspot.com
    /2009/06/mccall-flora.html

    from "The Wildflower Book" by Donald and Lillian Stokes:

    Fairy slipper (Calypso bulbosa) is named for the delicate structure of its tiny flower, which resembles a diminutive slipper--one that could fit only a woodland fairy. This plant is often found growing near or on a rotted log, where its roots associate with special fungi that help them absorb nutrients. The genus name, Calypso, refers to the beautiful nymph in Homer's Odyssey, and bulbosa refers to the bulblike corm at the base of the plant.

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