2009-05-09 Cypripedium fasciculatum

Lisa and I visited a population of CYFAS in SW Washington that I've been to many times before. It was very healthy in 2007 and then was decimated in 2008.

In 2009, it's recovering...


...BUT, one of the clumps was demolished by, it looks like, an careless hiker.


Every stem in that clump was snapped at the base and left for dead maybe the day before. Fortunately, I was able to collect the trampled plants and send them off for genetic sequencing to a friend in China. (They have since been sequenced successfully). She is sequencing almost every member of the genus (with 2 or 3 notable exceptions, like subtropicum) and we will hopefully be able to classify Cypripedieae little better now.