"orchid that flourishes only in Yosemite National Park and was first collected in 1923 is a distinct species...
the species' minute, tennis-ball yellow flowers... The plant, which is the only known orchid species endemic to California's Sierra Nevada range, grows in spring-fed areas between 6,000 and 9,000 feet... All nine sites where the orchid has been spotted are in the park, some adjacent to areas popular among visitors... its flowers are less than a quarter of an inch wide... "This orchid might not be showy enough to get the masses lined up all the way from San Francisco to see it, but I'm leaving Sunday to go out there to photograph it," said wild orchid expert Paul Martin Brown, who planned to leave Acton, Maine, this weekend to include the orchid in his latest book. [Alison] Colwell, one of three scientists credited with the discovery, said the bog-orchid is thought to have persisted in the upland meadows south of Yosemite Valley, which nourished unique plant species because the area never froze under glacial cover. ... Park officials said they would not release details about where the plant was found because they were concerned visitors might love it to death. "There's concern that it will get trampled," said ranger Adrienne Freeman... A botanist... George Henry Grinnell first collected the Yosemite bog-orchid in 1923 and sent the dried, pressed flower to an herbarium that later gave its collections to Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Colwell said. Ron Coleman, a visiting scientist at the garden, was combing through the collection one Friday morning in July 1993 when he found the original specimen on a herbarium sheet ringed with notes handwritten by Grinnell, who believed the flower was related to the green bog-orchid. "It was just a little dry brown thing, but right away I saw several things about it didn't fit the pattern of any other orchid in California," Coleman said... Coleman and his colleague Leon Glicenstein drove up to Yosemite the next day and rejoiced when they spotted the flowers in the fading light. They snapped a photograph and sent it to orchid expert Charles Sheviak, hoping he would confirm their suspicion that the plant was a unique species. Sheviak, curator of Botany at the New York State Museum, concluded the orchid was related to an existent variety that grows in the Rocky Mountains, but botanists familiar with Yosemite remained curious. After Colwell _ in her first year on the job _ caught a whiff of the flower and was drawn to it in 2003, she called her boss Peggy Moore. Together, they dug a plant from the meadow and sent it to Sheviak, who later revised his opinion. The trio's publication July 3 announcing the Platanthera yosemitensis, the Yosemite bog-orchid's official name, made its status as a separate species official." URL : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/16/AR2007071601592.html photo : [caption : an August 12, 2003 photo of the Yosemite bog-orchid taken in Yosemite, Calif... the rare, new orchid species... flourishes only in the wet meadows of a... portion of Yosemite National Park... the species' tiny, tennis-ball yellow flowers" http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/07/16/PH2007071601595.jpg ************** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
