On Saturday, the 20th, my daughter took our dog for a walk on the Parkarosa, which means she walked around our property on the trails my husband made a long time ago. She came home very excited. She'd found a new wildflower growing along the trail. We've walked that trail hundreds and hundreds of times, so we know when something new pops up. When spring starts, one of the first things we do is walk the trails looking for specific wildflowers. The first one we look for is Buttercups, because they're usually the first to bloom, sometime in late March to mid April.
Anyway, she was very excited and took pictures of it with her phone. Upon seeing these pictures, I got even more excited because it looked like an orchid, which are very rare on our property. We looked it up on Google and sure enough. It's an orchid! She then took me to where it was. Dang! One of them was actually in the middle of the trail. I've taken pictures.
This is a Striped Coralroot Orchid.
Isn't it gorgeous? The flowers are very small. Maybe half an inch across. There were 5 plants total.
You might notice the little yellow powder grains on it. That is pine pollen. The air is thick with it right now. Everything outside is covered in pollen. This happens every year, but it is especially thick this year.
We've had a couple weeks of record breaking heat. We're talking 80's and 90's! It's very unusual to be that hot in May. I admit I was enjoying the deck more than usual. Today, though, it is much cooler. Stayed in the mid to upper 50's. It felt good to cool off. It will be like this for the next few days. I'm hoping for a bit of rain to wash all the pollen off everything. So far, none is in the forecast.
That's all for today. Talk at ya later.
Live long and prosper. \\//
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