{"id":3425,"date":"2015-09-04T21:09:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-04T21:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/rare-orchid-surveys-yield-low-numbers-in-west-denver\/"},"modified":"2021-06-08T21:51:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T21:51:32","slug":"rare-orchid-surveys-yield-low-numbers-in-west-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/2015\/09\/04\/rare-orchid-surveys-yield-low-numbers-in-west-denver\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare Orchid Surveys Yield Low Numbers in West Denver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In late August, our botany team explored areas of West Denver&nbsp;hoping to relocate populations of&nbsp;the&nbsp;rare Ute ladies&#8217; tresses orchid (<em>Spiranthes diluvialis<\/em>). The orchid, which is listed as Threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has highly fluctuating population numbers from year to year. Last year in August 2014, no orchids were found&nbsp;at&nbsp;the&nbsp;West Denver occurrence. This summer, Pam Smith and Bernadette Kuhn were only able to locate six orchids at a location where hundreds have previously been documented. The orchids contain an array of flowers that curve&nbsp;along the&nbsp;top of the plant, like a white spiral staircase. Once the orchid&#8217;s white flowers turn brown and the fruits mature, the plants are nearly impossible to spot in the&nbsp;tall grasses, rushes, and coyote willows that are typically found in suitable&nbsp;Ute&nbsp;ladies&#8217; tresses&nbsp;habitat. Only one of the orchids this year was in bloom (see&nbsp;photo below). While surveying,&nbsp;we were excited to&nbsp;spot a monarch butterfly resting in a plains cottonwood (see second photo below).<\/p>\n<table align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5957\" src=\"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/Spi_dil_Wheat.jpg\" width=\"299\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/Spi_dil_Wheat.jpg 299w, https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/Spi_dil_Wheat-224x300.jpg 224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\">The lovely, rare and Threatened Ute ladies&#8217; tresses orchid (<em>Spiranthes diluvialis<\/em>) in bloom.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<table align=\"center\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto;text-align: center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5958\" src=\"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/SpiranthesSurveys2015008.jpg\" width=\"320\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/SpiranthesSurveys2015008.jpg 320w, https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2018\/11\/SpiranthesSurveys2015008-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"text-align: center\">A monarch butterfly rests in a plains cottonwood tree in West Denver.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In late August, our botany team explored areas of West Denver&nbsp;hoping to relocate populations of&nbsp;the&nbsp;rare Ute ladies&#8217; tresses [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":5957,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,16],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-botany","8":"category-threatened-and-endangered-species","9":"entry","10":"override"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cnhp.colostate.edu\/cnhpblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}