Yellow Mac

Day 232: I had gone looking for Northern Coralroot (Corallorhiza trifida) in the usual places and wasn't too surprised when I didn't find any, given the wetter and colder spring weather. What did surprise me, though, was the absence of Corallorhiza maculata, the species which grows in my back yard. I was on my way back to the car when something yellowish caught my eye on the hillside about thirty feet above me. "I swear that's Corallorhiza," I said as I began climbing up from the obscure pad of the Damn Trail, "but why is it so tall when there haven't been any other specimens in here? Can't be mertensiana. It's too early for mertensiana." Mertensiana is famous for its wide range of colour variations, maculata less so, although a striking yellow form occasionally occurs. Upon arriving at its side, I could see that the flowers were just beginning to emerge from some of the stems. I waypointed the specimen with my GPS, and will be keeping an eye on its development. If perhaps not the brilliant yellow variation I've seen elsewhere, I suspect it will prove out to be a yellow-tinged C. maculata.