2007-05-05 Cyp fasciculatum

In early May, the first Cyps to start blooming are Cyp fasciculatum. I visited this location in South Central Washington which is quite atypical for a Cyp fasciculatum population. Most populations throughout the west consist of many single stemmed plants spread over a large area. Here a plant from what a typical population would look like.



However, this population has only a few plants, but three of them are enormous. The plant below has more than 20 stems and more than 80 flowers! This is truly extraordinary for Cyp fasciculatum. I can't verify that every stem comes from the same rhizome, of course.



This species comes in several color forms. This population has both the Red form and the Yellow form.







Thanks to the poison oak and mosquitoes, we were a quick at this site. I did get to tell one family that they had just been walking through a thicket of poison oak... I hope they were ok.

None the less, I did manage to find a few stems of Corallorhiza striata.



Across the river in Oregon, the Balsamroot and lupine were fantastic along Highway 30.