Day 220: In between overseeing three volunteers on a campground project, I took time out for some botanical exploration and was rewarded with finding two snow-white specimens of Calypso bulbosa, Calypso Orchid. Calypsos' upper petals are normally magenta-pink, and the lower petal is marked with dark red lines in the heart and deep pink spots on the lip. In the white form, the interior lines are fainter and the spots are yellow. There is usually a slight hint of creamy pink in the upper petals. These two were by far the whitest I have ever seen. I had left my GPSr in the car (almost guaranteeing that I'd find something I wanted to record), so I found an easier way out, and assigned mental waypoints to several patches of lichen which could have been identical twins for every other patch of lichen in the area. On the return, I went unerringly to the Calypsos and took a reading. Now I know I can find them again when I come back with Team Biota. The white form is not a separate sub-species; it is a normal colour variation, although it is seen with much less frequency. Certain areas contain a higher percentage of white to pink, but whether that is due to genetics or habitat is something I don't know.
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