We Have An Accord

Day 279: I've been waiting for Arnie's assessment for several days now, and it would seem we are in agreement regarding a species of Orchid not previously recorded in Mount Rainier National Park: Platanthera ephemerantha. That's harder to say than "Myriosclerotinia caricis-ampullaceae." We were put onto this lovely and tiny creature by another botanist who had seen it before it was in bloom. He thought it might be P. unalascensis, and asked me if I could check on it when it was flowering. We visited it on our way home from the abortive aurora mission, and as it turns out, it was the crown jewel of the day. I sent pictures to Arnie, but forgot to include the pertinent details as to how I keyed it out with Hitchcock. Here's our exchange so you can see what goes into determining the identity of a plant. There are a few missing pieces to the puzzle, but enough of them have come together to confirm Platanthera ephemerantha.

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From Arnie:
Okay, well, here we go.  To start off, I don't have experience with Platanthera ephemerantha, so here is my full reading of the Plantanthera key in Hitchcock.  Your photos are very good... but, this is a genus where you need to carefully measure flower parts, so need a ruler, or that penny you sometimes have in photos for scale.

Couplet

Leaves all on the lower 1/3 of the stem, often strictly basal, OR, leaves all cauline.

---Should have photo of entire plant to show entire stem.

---The leaves in photo all on lower 1/3 of stem, and my guess is that there are no more leaves higher on stem.

Couplet

Spur 0.7-1.3 mm, OR, spur 2-27 mm.

---This can be difficult to measure by looking at a photo with no ruler or scale bar.

---But 2 mm is just a little nub of a spur and these spurs are well developed, so I assume >2 mm

Then we come to this monster couplet:

a) sepals 3-several nerved, OR, b) sepals 1-nerved.  I can’t determine from photo. Sometimes if I can’t find the veins I guess at there only being 1, so slight possibility of b)

a) leaves 1-2, OR, b) leaves 2-5.  Well, in photo leaves are 2.  So not helpful.

a) leaves less than 5 times as long as broad, OR, b) leaves at least 5 times as long as broad.  It is awkward to measure leaves at an angle in photo, but I estimate leaves are about 6 times as long as broad, so b)

a) leaves basal, OR, b) leaves borne close together on lower 1/3 of stem but not all basal.  You know, the leaves attach above ground level (higher on stem than as seen in dandelion leaves) yet I usually think of cauline leaves as going higher on stem.  I can imagine different “experts” going either way and I don’t know Hitchcock’s criterium.  But since I see leaves on a stem, I lean towards b)

a) leaves not withering by anthesis (flowering), OR, b) leaves tending to wither by anthesis.  Clearly these leaves are not withered, but that “tending” to wither is ambiguous.  Note couplet b) takes you to P. ephemerantha which has leaves while in flower.

a) lip 5-20 mm, OR, b) lip 2-7 mm.  I estimate the lip (lowest petal) as around 5-7 mm, so this is not clear.

a) plants of mesic to wet areas, OR, b) plants mostly of dry areas.  Hmmm. Not a wet area, could be dry-ish.  I lean towards b)

Summary, I lean towards b)

Couplet

Spur 1.5-5.5 mm and less than or equal to lip, OR, spur 7-15 mm and much greater than lip.

---Spur is less than or equal to lip, which takes us to P. ephemerantha.  Can’t measure length better than to estimate it is within the range of 5 to 7 mm.

Platanthera ephemerantha

Sepals and petals bright white—yes.

Upper 2 petals +/- falcate (curved like a hawk’s beak), often converging—yes.

Lip becoming recurved towards spur by late anthesis (full flowering)—yes.

Inflorescence +/- loosely-flowered—well, yeah.

So this species is possible.

Platanthera elegans

Sepals and petals bright white—yes.

Upper 2 petals +/- straight and the tips generally diverging—no.

Inflorescence generally densely-flowered—no.

Not as good a fit.

 

I have never seen P. ephemerantha.  Congratulations!!!  Add another gold star after your name.

My reply:

Okay, I should have included some details which helped me key it out.

Leaves all on lower 1/3 of stem.

Spur roughly 7 mm.

Leaves at least 5 times as long as broad, closer to 6 as you surmised.

I'd have described the leaves as basal, having two plants in observation. I think the lower portion in the one photo had been disturbed and was therefore showing when it wouldn't have been otherwise.

Second specimen had leaves and was in full flower.

Lip equal to spur, i.e., 7 mm.

BONE-DRY area!

Summer Or Winter

Day 278: Which side is up? Front? Back? Which is which? Summer-and-winter weave is wonderfully reversible even though the patterns created by the coloured floats are not exact reversals of each other. One side of the cloth is dark, the other light: summer or winter, your choice. The first of the towels is done in a mere four days of weaving two blocks per day, and I should get six from this warp, although in a moment of mental lapse I forgot to note the length I wound off. Assuming I used the same amount I usually allow for towels, that would have been 18', accommodating space between towels for fringe and the standard loom waste of roughly 4' plus "wiggle room." Better to have too much than too little! Thrums can always be crocheted into potholders, and of course I like to weave a small sample to include my weaving file. The shuttle is still loaded with green, so the next towel will be identical to this one. After that? Well, who knows? I have two shelves full of options.

Aspidotis Densa

Day 277: Aspidotis densa had not been known to occur in Mount Rainier National Park until my botany partners and I discovered it last year. We didn't know what it was when we first saw it, but as always, I took many photos of it from all angles to show all its field identification points, and looked it up as soon as I got home. Since there was no prior record of it, we were asked to obtain voucher specimens for the Park and the WTU Herbarium (Burke) if the population was sufficient to support doing so, but by the time we could get back to it, Washington had been hit with 100-degree temperatures. We were unable to locate plants showing both the narrow fertile and broad sterile fronds (see photo above). Unfortunately, the sterile fronds had withered in the blistering heat due to their greater surface area. One of our goals for Saturday's trip was to collect sterile fronds to round out the vouchers, and we were successful. Score two for Botany Day!

Lathyrus Torreyi

Day 276: At the extreme upper end of its range, there exists a small patch of rare and endangered Torrey's peavine (Lathyrus torreyi). When my botany partners and I first observed it in 2020, it covered a plot roughly 12" x 20". During the peak pandemic years, I made only one trip to check on it, and found that by 2022, it had doubled in size. This year, our goal was first to find it in bloom, and second, to take voucher specimens for the Park and the WTU Herbarium, if and only if the population met specific requirements for number of plants. We were delighted to find that the patch had again doubled in size, and now covers an area which measures approximately 30 sq. ft. It was in bloom, so we obtained the requisite three specimens which went immediately into my plant press. With one success under our belts, our botany day had just begun.

But No Aurora

Day 275: For the first time in at least 15 years, I was away from home overnight, sitting in a parking lot at 6000' with my botany partners Joe and Sharon in the hopes of witnessing the aurora borealis. To make a long story short, it failed to appear, but we were rewarded with a spectacular display of alpenglow at sunrise from Sunrise. Yes, you read that right, and there were a ton of people who had come to Sunrise Point with the same vain expectations. After full light, we began the botanical portion of the expedition, collecting herbarium specimens for two species, checked our Mystery Plant for flowers (none) and locating an uncommon/rare orchid. Once our tasks were done, they dropped me off at home where I am now trying to make amends with a little Boy who is rather upset at having been left alone.

Winter Side Up

Day 274: And here we go! These first two motifs are shown "winter side up," and are woven on one of my favourite summer-and-winter threadings. "Winter" is the dark side where the floats are more visible. I prefer weaving "winter side up" because it's easier to see treadling errors than on the lighter "summer" side. As I've mentioned before, the two sides are not exact opposites of each other. This is due to the fact that in the weft, the tabby threads separating the coloured pattern threads are the same colour as the warp. However, the pattern which emerges on the back is almost (almost, but not quite!) opposite: light blocks separated by dark bands. When laundered, the fibers plump up and the pattern becomes more pronounced as the long floats expand to conceal the tabby ground.

Summer-and-winter weave was very popular in Colonial America, and as a general rule, linen or cotton was used as the warp and tabby, with a heavier wool thread for the overshot pattern. The technique experienced a return to popularity during the mid-1900s, and I came to love it as a child while nestled under the blue and white coverlet on my bed. I was intrigued by the not-quite-reverse character of the weave. Blankets such as mine were fairly common by then, woven entirely of cotton in the traditional blue or red on a white ground. Mine had a sailboat worked into the design. Today, I prefer to work summer-and-winter with cotton threads of equal weight whether I'm making tea towels like these or a full-sized throw.

Ready To Weave

Day 273: An empty loom is a sad and lonely thing, and cannot be left to mope for long. Mine seldom stands bare for more than a few days, and in this case, I had a measured warp already waiting. Yesterday, I mounted it on the back beam, and had threaded the heddles and half the reed before I turned in for the night. Threading the heddles is the most demanding part of the process, or rather, the one which requires the most mental focus. The warp threads must be loaded in a precise sequence to achieve a particular pattern. Any mistakes will show up as soon as weaving begins. On the other hand, threading the reed is relatively simple. Each thread passes through a slot, following the order in which they come through the heddles, one after another. In other words, the heddles set the pattern and the reed controls the spacing. For these towels, I am using a 15-dent reed, i.e., 15 threads to the inch. The pattern will be my favourite summer-and-winter "plaid," worked with a cream tabby and whatever colour strikes my fancy. With two shelves full of options, this should be fun.