Continuing with my 500 words per day challenge, today’s theme is travel, so I thought it would be appropriate to share a few of the plants that caught my attention during my travels over the past few years. The list has been curated based on which plants I could find my photographs of. It is interesting to see what grows where: what characteristics shape the plants to match their climate, soil and exposure.
The calypso orchids growing in Jasper national park are beautiful, and (I think) unique to the area. There is a sign displayed near the path where I found them warning visitors not to try transplanting any home. The sign explained that these orchids depend on a particular fungus that lives in the soil and acts in symbiosis with the orchid’s root system. If the orchids are transplanted to other soil that does not contain this fungus then they will not survive. I’ve been to Jasper many times since moving to Canada, and I love it. Time seems to stretch out into longer days when I am there, and I always come back refreshed. These orchids are ones that we found on a walk on the trails out from the town site, close to the river in June 2015.
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