We had some orchid excitement last week. I struck out on the Casa Burro trail with the intent of walking the trails to see what was going on, and the check for downed limbs/trees. However, I got to a point along the trail where I gazed uphill and thought, "hmm... I've never explored that area over there. It looks interesting." and before I knew it I was off-trail just poking around. Then very unexpectedly, I saw an orchid! Naturally I did not have my Newcomb's with me, but I did have my phone, so I called Tom back down at the Nature Center. I persuaded him to come up and he quickly identified it as Ragged Fringed Orchis. I think it is so beautiful! We looked and looked, but could only find the one. BUT... while looking Tom found several plants of the Green Adder's Mouth Orchid. Then we found some more, and then some more! We believe there are upwards of two dozen plants in this area! As you can see from the picture of the Green Adder's Mouth, it is not quite in bloom yet. The really cool thing about these two orchids is that although they are both already recorded on our plant list, we haven't see either in a couple of decades.
Yea for nature!