In the spirit of Native Plant Appreciation Month, we’re keeping tabs on what’s blooming around the Quimper Peninsula for the month of April. Reports have come in that the first trilliums have been spotted in Fort Townsend, and skunk cabbage is going strong in wetlands around Anderson Lake.

Big-leaf maples are spreading new leaves and tassels of green flowers above the empty campground at Fort Worden. Red-flowering currant is blooming along trails in the Quimper Wildlife Corridor. But perhaps the most celebrated sightings are the first fairy slipper orchids to spread their bright pink petals in the deep shadows of our Douglas fir forests. Have you seen one yet?

“The earliest we’ve ever seen a fairy slipper around here is March 31 out in Fort Townsend,” said botanist Fred Weinmann, who’s been keeping records there for a couple of decades.

The jewel-like fairy slipper, also known as calypso orchid or calypso bulbosa in Latin, is one of more than 40 native orchids found in the state of Washington, and at least seven species that can be found on the Quimper Peninsula.

Each fairy slipper flower is solitary on a short stem emerging from a single broad basal leaf. The name calypso refers to the lid or hood (from the Greek word kalyptra, meaning covering or veil) that protects the reproductive parts of the flower. Like many terrestrial orchids, the fairy slipper has a bulbous root, inspiring its species name, bulbosa. They are sometimes called Venus’ slipper after the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

Although calypso orchids are usually not very abundant where they grow, they can be found in northern temperate forests around the world. You can expect to find them blooming for about a month in our area before the flowers fade and thousands of tiny seeds are released from papery pods.

If you spot a pink-flowered fairy slipper, you’ll likely find the stems or leaves of other native orchids nearby. The mottled evergreen leaves of rattlesnake orchid are easy to recognize, but their pale white flowers won’t be out until mid-summer. Broad glossy green leaves of several species of rein orchids are also common, especially in boggy areas. Pale pink stems of striped and spotted coralroot orchids are beginning to emerge in dry, shady forests, long before the flowers bloom. In late summer, you can find elegant spirals of white-flowered ladies’ tresses growing in wet meadows. These are the orchids of Quimper Peninsula.

“But are they useful?” you might ask. “Are they edible? Medicinal? They are so small; what role do they play?”

The answers to these questions are mostly unknown. There is some anecdotal evidence that some have been used by indigenous cultures for food and medicine, but they are not abundant enough to harvest and are extremely difficult to cultivate. We are left with beauty, mystery and the immense complexity and diversity of untamed, wild life. These qualities might be the most useful purposes to our ever-inquiring minds.

As with any native plant, it is best to leave wild orchids where you find them so they will continue to flourish in their natural habitat and so others can enjoy discovering them.

You can find more information and photos of our native orchids on the Washington Native Plant Society website, www.wnps.org and at the University of Washington Burke Herbarium website, biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection.php.