Did you know that the family of the orchids is the third largest family of flowering plants in the world? In size, only the daisy family and the legumes are bigger. There are 21,000 different species of wild orchids in the world, of which many live on the ground (rupestral). There are also many parasites among this group of lovely flowering plants. They are dispersed all over the world, but are more abundant and showy in the tropics.
Temperate areas of our world are also among the blessed places, as we have 8 or even ten different species that grow on the ground in the temperate rainforest of western North America, maybe a foot high, but nonetheless still lovely. The orchid in the photo, called coral root, is rare and a saprophyte, living off the dead organic material, as it has no chlorophyll of its own. The flowers are typically orchidial, even if small. They are not really easy to find among all the other vegetation. Usually we find this species in the vicinity of another more common orchid, called rattlesnake plantain, which are barely coming into flowering stalk, and will soon have a lovely series of flowers, quite fragrant. Indeed, the most fragrant flower of this temperate forest is another orchid, the white bog orchid.
