Where are the orchids of yore? Right here, that's where...[Napahai, Yunnan China]

Cypripedium flavum

I can't grow ladyslippers worth a damn...but then not everyone can. But we all seem to be enchanted by this amazing genus I've been lucky to find many times over the decades. These pictures were all taken on an extraordinary day (June 18, 2018) on a fantastic trip for the North American Rock Garden Society. Stay tuned, I'm dreaming of doing another one...Every day was spectacular. This one was no exception.

Cypripedium flavum

Some of these were probably planted at "Napahai Botanical Garden"--an interesting attempt to help educate visitors to this mind-bogglingly rich and beautiful region. That garden is worthy of a blog post all its own.

Cypripedium flavum

Cypripedium flavum

Notice Gymnocarpium aff. dryopteris is in every one of these pictures. I noticed it many other places where Orchids grew. 

Cypripedium flavum

This does not by any means exhaust the variability in this taxon.

Cypripedium tibeticum

I have seen  the similar C. macranthum several places in Yunnan, and also in Sikkim. This is my only time I've found this dark and brooding taxon.

Cypripedium tibeticum

Cypripedium yunnanense

The name not withstanding, I saw far more of this in Sikkim than in China. Notice the oak fern again.

Galearis cyclochila 

Cypripedia aren't the only orchids by any means: I was enchanted by this one.

Iris ruthenica

I have seen acres of Iris ruthenica in Kazakhstan--a darker, more solid blue subspecies. I would so love to grow this form! I can only imagine the variation of this species from Southern and Northern China all the way to Romania. Do check the fantastic variability documented on I-Naturalist.   While you're at it, click on the amazing distributional map as well. How did I live without I-Naturalist so long? You'll notice this record is not on that map: I didn't use I-Phones in 2018, and the meta-data were not recorded.  

Iris bulleyana

En route to Napahai, we found a spectacular stand of this iris. If you've followed my blog very long, you will know that I have an uncontrollable love of Iris. I want them all!

And of course we had to find the albino!

Every blossom seemed a little different.

For me Heaven is a field of wild iris.

Gueldenstaedtia himalaica

Just checked I-Naturalist: this is now going as Tibetia himalaica a more easily spelled name. Poor Gueldenstaedt was offed rather like Gildenstern and Rosencrantz. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who's ever made that recondite joke (which I'm rather proud of). Click on the highlighted link above to see its charming curvaceous range from Kashmir to Uttarakhandu in northern India. If the Himalayas were as thoroughly studied as Europe or the U.S.A., methinks that map would look very different. There was a photo taken on the Deqen plateau near Napahai on I-Naturalist looking rather like mine--only photographed a full two months later!

Anemone rivularis

I have grown this: it becomes an enormous monster in the garden. Would we could keep it so petite!

Androsace spinulifera

One of the largest androsaces, which I have grown once or twice. This and A. foliosa are the largest I've grown--although I've seen far more of this in China and Sikkim. Aha! Just checked I-Naturalist--A. foliosa has only been photographed in Pakistan. What a pity I lost my plant.. Not apt to get it again soon.

Closer look at the monster Androsace. One can never have too many androsaces in one's life, btw.

Androsace bulleyana

And one of the stars of the day. This, sadly, is biennial. I have not fount it to self sow. That red! Red-letter day indeed.

At the top of the picture you can see the wall leading to the entrance to the "Botanical Garden"...these I'm confident are native. The previous picture sjhows what looks to me to be Juniperus communis, more or less identical to how it grows in the Rockies. Neither show shows the masses of Daphne calcicola that grew with the androsaces--I only caught the last few flowers...

There were dozens of other plants I photographed on Napahai. And who knows how many I missed! Where indeed are the days of yore?