I had yesterday afternoon off, so decided to head to a spot where some platanthera lacera have been flowering reliably (except for a recent drought). I found five plants near a smallish pond, pretty much where they had been found before. After a while I headed back to the car to get some snacks and water, and was surprised to find a nice plant not more than 15 yards from my car! I guess tunnel vision isn't helpful when trying to find orchids..... they were right out in the open. After a bit I followed the 'road' back towards the main road, walking through some seemingly dry, scraped areas. After walking about 50 yds I came to a more open spot with very little vegetation and ended up finding about eight somewhat lacera-like plants, some tiny some a nice size. After looking at them for a while I realized that some had sort of an orange or creamy tint to them. After editing pics tonight I realized that the top sepal cap on the later ones was more of a close cap, while the more standard-looking lacera the top cap was either less cupped or actually flared upwards. Looking back at the pics, the plants near the water are greenish white and the ones up in the scraped areas are more creamy to somewhat orangeish. There are northern white fringed orchis a mile or so away, but I don't know if some of these plants look like possible hybrids with them or not.
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these three pics show plants that definitely have a different color and a bit different shape than most of the previous pics (except maybe the one near my car...)
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these three pics show plants that definitely have a different color and a bit different shape than most of the previous pics (except maybe the one near my car...)
