We were up on the Old Blewett Road in eastern Washington several times recently and both times it was warm and sunny and the butterflies were everywhere. We had gone to see the orchids and the butterflies were an unexpected bonus. We managed to catch both in this shot.

The Tall White Bog Orchis, Platanthera dilata var. dilatata is extremely fragrant and that in combination with the white flowers would suggest that butterflies such as these are the principle pollinators. In this case the butterfly's tongue can be seen reaching into the flower.

There are two other varieties of this orchid, variety leucostachys and variety albiflora, distinguished by the length of the spur. In these flowers the spur is about equal in length to the lip as can be seen in the photo. In the other varieties the spur is longer or shorter.

This was published as a two page center spread in the December 2012 issue of Orchids, the magazine of the American Orchid Society, along with a brief article on field photography. The photo was chosen from the AOS's photo of the week gallery.

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