Scotty Smith's Orchids of Colorado. - Southwest Colorado Wildflowers

Corallorhiza maculata (Raf.) Raf. variety maculata andvariety occidentalis (Lindl.) AmesCorallorhiza maculata, (ko-rall‟-oh-rye-za)+(mak-yoo-lah‟-ta) - from the Latin maculata meaningspotted. Corallorhiza is from the Greek word for “Coral Root”, referring to the structure and shapeof the rhizome to coral.Common names: Spotted coralroot, large coralroot, many-flowered coralroot.Flowering: from late May thru AugustDescription: A leafless plant, with absolutely no chlorophyll to the plant whatsoever. No green inthis orchid. The color of the plant ranges from a brilliant yellow to orange, red to deep maroon. Theorchid flowers have 3 sepals and 3 petals. One petal has formed itself into the lip. This attractivelanding platform is typically white with varying amounts of spots on it--some more than others. Thespots are the same color as the plant. Occasional plants will have pure white lips and no spots.Because these plants have no leaves and no green they cannot get their nutrients from the sun.Where they are usually located does not allow them to get any sun either. So these plants aresometimes considered saprophytic, but are now accepted as living mutually with the mycorrhizalfungal that are parts of the earth that they co-habitat. Hence they are able to live deep in the shade.They get all of their food these mycorrhizal sources. The base of the lip on this orchid floweractually has two ears or tabs that protrude out of the sides of the lip. This is an important way oftelling a couple of our coralroot orchids apart. Not much in the fragrance category here; pretty muchnone existent. There may be as many as 50 flowers along the stem with many blooming at the sametime from bottom upwards. They can either be seen growing as a single stem of flowers or inclumps up to a foot in diameter.Habitat: Typically located in deeply shaded forest, either evergreen or also in Aspen forests. Theygrow solidly in gravel and pine needles, strictly in pine duff, and also in grassy Aspen leaf litter.Occasionally then also seen in grass semi open areas. They grow between the elevations of 6,500 to10,000 feet.In the United States there are 7 species of this genus, with only 4 known from Colorado. Corallorhizamaculata has two varieties. One variety is called “occidentalis”, meaning “western” and the other isknown as variety “maculata”. The variety „occidentalis’ blooms first and then variety „maculata”. Smalldifferences tell these two apart as their blooming seasons can and do overlap. The lips of variety“occidentalis” is rounded on the sides, where as the lips of variety “maculata” are more straight andnarrow.139