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Yosemite’s Funniest Stories: Phantom Orchid
Friday, September 7th, 2007The recent discovery of a new species of orchid in Yosemite National Park (see poll) recalls the story of a Yosemite couple who had been invited to visit a park environmental consultant who lived in Yosemite West, just beyond the park boundary at the end of the Glacier Point Road. They lived in Yosemite Valley and sought advice on native plant gardening. During their visit, they asked the environmentalist and native plant expert if there was any single native plant the expert had never seen. He replied that he had spent years in search of the elusive “Phantom Orchid,” admitting it was one of his ambitions to see the plant at least once in his lifetime. He described the orchid as a delicate, tiny flower with a splash of yellow and said it bloomed for a very short time, which made it so hard to find. The husband of the couple looked down and seeing a similar flower, asked innocently, “would it look anything like this?” The plant expert was stunned. There, at his feet, growing in his back yard were Phantom Orchids. Not one, but many of them. He had spent many summer days hiking the national park searching for the rare plant, only to have a visitor point out that they were growing just outside his back door.