The Siskiyou Wild Rivers area in southwestern Oregon is one of the few regions in the lower 48 with such extraordinary biodiversity.  Back again, this Wildflower of the Week shows spectacular color and character.

Epipactis gigantea:  Stream Orchid

Although more often found in western than eastern Oregon, Epipactis gigantea, the Stream Orchid, actually has a fairly wide distribution along stream and wet habitats throughout much of western North America.  The photo above was taken along a cool spring feeding Rough and Ready Creek in southern Oregon. 

Like other orchids, the flower is made up of 3 showy outer sepals and 3 smaller inner petals.  This species is also occasionally known as the “Chatterbox Orchid,” as the lowest swollen jowl or jaw-like petal (actually called the “lip”) has a small appendage that reminds some people of an extend tongue.  Most remarkably, the whole jaw assemblage can wag up and down in the breeze.

The style, stigma, and stamens all coalesce into a flower part unique to orchids termed a column.   When certain insects, mostly syrphid flies, visit the flower for nectar, they often leave with the pollen attached like small backpacks between their wings in small waxy masses termed “pollinia.”  In the above photo the pollinia, of these still unvisited flowers, can be seen as small whitish “teeth” just behind the column tipped stigma.  Continuing with the face analogy, this looks a bit like an upper jaw bone extended into an oversized yellow nose.   OK, former Treckies, can you now also see the cheeks, upraised eyebrows, and long pointy ears?

The origin of the name Epipactis is often summarized as simply the Greek ancient name for a similar species of flower.  In fact the name illustrates the misapplication of names before the 18th century Swiss botanist Carl Linnaeus’ introduced what is today a standardized system of naming.  Theophrastus, in about 340 B.C. called the totally unrelated Black Hellebore (belonging to the Buttercup Family) Epipactis.  The name Epipactis is believed to have been derived from “epipegnus," which means to coagulate, alluding to that (unrelated) plant’s effect in curdling milk.  I think I’d make a face too, if I was named after something that curdles milk.