Lake County Native Wildflowers: Not all orchids are tropical
- Karen Sullivan, Kim Riley and Terre Logsdon
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — When you think of orchids, it is usually along the lines of beautiful flowers, long bloom time, tropical location, then an impulse purchase of one from the grocery store, which you bring one home to enjoy for a while but it never blooms again no matter what you do and eventually shrivels up and dies.
But this is a column about native wildflowers in Lake County so why are we talking about orchids? Well, they grow here as well!
Actually, orchids grow on every continent in the world (except Antarctica) and Lake County is home to nearly 20 species of orchids and are delightful to observe in the wild and some species can be purchased from native plant nurseries to cultivate in your home garden.
“In the wild, E. gigantea lives near the water. Any water. They have been found in stream banks, perennial seeps, the edges of lakes, in marshes and even at the margins of hot springs! They are almost indifferent to water chemistry and temperature (if plants can grow in the water, it will),” according to the Orchid Society of Northern Nevada.
They prefer wet or marshy soils, but can survive being underwater occasionally (wet winters), which describes many of our riparian areas in Northern California and Lake County where streams go dry in the summer and when they do, giant stream orchids also dry up as well, and return in the late spring after a winter of rain even if they’ve been underwater for a while.
Tolerant of a range of soil types, giant stream orchids can grow in gravel, sand, or clay and can thrive with dappled sunlight, all the way to full sun depending on the amount of moisture in the soil, and are the best bet to attempt to grow orchids in your gardens here in Lake County.
When the two basal leaves of the Rein Orchid (Piperia elegans) begin growing in your yard in Cobb, you recognize that they look like orchid leaves — but Cobb is not a tropical environment — so you watch, and are delighted when the single stem with multiple buds open to fragrant small white/green flowers.
“Rein orchid plants are best enjoyed in their natural environment and they’re almost certain to die if you attempt to transplant wild plants into your garden,” according to the website Gardening Know How. “Like many terrestrial orchids, rein orchids have a symbiotic relationship with tree roots, fungus, and decaying plant debris in the soil and they won’t grow in a habitat that isn’t just right.”
Another orchid that relies on fungus is the phantom orchid, and is the only Cephalanthera species entirely dependent on symbiotic mycorrhizae (fungus) for its nutrition. This mycoheterotrophic orchid has no chlorophyll, so it makes no energy for itself which causes the entire plant to be white, except for parts of the flowers.
Sadly, phantom orchids are becoming more scarce as its habitat — dense, isolated forest — becomes more rare, but a few still pop up in Lake County on Cobb and other higher-elevation forests, but climate change models forecast decline and possible extinction of this species by the year 2100.
Although there are a wide variety of orchids native to Lake County, your best bet for growing some in your yard is the giant stream orchid — and it is a lovely choice if you have the right environment.
Find interesting information here on stream orchids and here for orchids in general.
To see and learn more about the species of Orchids in Lake County, visit CalFlora.
Find nurseries where you can purchase giant stream orchids here.
Terre Logsdon is an environmentalist, certified master composter, and advocate for agroecology solutions to farming. An avid fan and protector of California wildflowers, plants, natural resources, and the environment, she seeks collaborative solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change. Kim Riley is retired, an avid hiker at Highland Springs, and has lived in Lake County since 1985. After 15 years of trail recovery and maintenance on the Highland Springs trails, she is now focused on native plants, including a native plant and pollinator garden on her property as well as promoting and preserving the beauty of the Highland Springs Recreation Area. Karen Sullivan has operated two nurseries to propagate and cultivate native plants and wildflowers, has lived in Kelseyville for the past 30 years, rides horses far and wide to see as many flowers as possible, and offers native plants and wildflowers for sale to the public. You can check her nursery stock here. They are collaborating on a book, Highland Springs Recreation Area: A Field Guide, which will be published in the future. In the meanwhile, please visit https://www.facebook.com/HighlandSpringsNaturalists and https://www.facebook.com/HighlandSpringsRecreationArea.