Wild Orchid CountrySaving species orchids at

Wagner Bog and Muttart Conservatory

Text and Photos by Marilynn McAra

Lady’s slipper is the emblem of Wagner Bog. The bog is home to 16 species orchidsand many other plants, such as the bunchberries in the background.

I’ll never forget the joy I felt when, at the age of nine, I dis-covered wild orchids growing only a few blocks from myhome in Edmonton. Two blooms with pouty yellow lipsand corkscrew brown petals: yellow lady’s slippers, hiddenin the tall quack grass and shaded woods of Mill CreekRavine. Although I’d collected and pressed many localwildflowers for the scrapbooks our naturalist teacherassigned us, I knew not to pick those little lovelies.

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Now, decades later, I am on an orchid-huntingexpedition at Wagner Natural Area with IrlMiller, president of the Wagner Natural Area

Society, as my guide. (The area, 6.5 kilometres west ofEdmonton, is known to locals as Wagner Bog.) It’s a 32-degree June day in the second year of a drought, so sun-screen and a water bottle are more important than themosquito repellent that is normally de rigueur here. Aswe enter the Bog and head for the welcoming shade of aforested area, the muted sounds of traffic on nearbyHighway 16 begin to fade and are replaced by thebuzzing of bees in the meadow. We pass bluebells,bunchberry, wild roses and fading marsh marigolds, andnear Marker 26 on the trail, there they are: patches ofyellow lady’s slipper orchids. The lady’s slipper is thelargest and showiest of the 16 species (i.e., wild) orchidsthat can be found at the Bog; it is also the Bog’s emblem,due to its beauty and relative abundance.

Wagner Natural Area is known for its biological diver-sity. It is home to more than 330 species of floweringplants, including orchids, and also has carnivorousplants, western toads, boreal chorus frogs and hundredsof yet unnamed insects. The area has proven rich groundfor scientific research—even the mosquitoes have beenstudied. Natural Areas like Wagner are owned by theprovincial government and are designed to preserveaspects of Alberta’s biological and physical diversity andto provide recreational opportunities, but they are not asstrictly protected as parks or ecological reserves.

ALBERTA HAS 27 NATIVE ORCHID SPECIES—a little-knownfact. Like all orchids in northern temperate regions, theygrow in the ground (most orchid species grow above theground, attached to branches or bark). Some—like lady’sslippers, round-leaved orchids and calypso (Venus’s slip-per) orchids—are attractive and noticeable, but manyhave minuscule flowers and require a guidebook for

identification. In drought years, some species may not befound at all, though they usually recur when conditionsimprove.

Species orchids in general are smaller than the morerecognizable cultivated hybrid orchids. Indeed, some areso disappointingly tiny that their presence—and impor-tance—is easily overlooked. The orchid family(Orchidaceæ), with about 30,000 native species, vies withthe aster family for the title of largest flowering plantfamily. Species orchids are found on every continentexcept Antarctica.

Within Alberta, species orchids can be found in theCypress Hills, the foothills, the Rocky Mountains, theboreal forests and in central Alberta. Depending on thespecies and location, most bloom some time from mid-May to mid-July.

WHEN WINTER COMES and the orchids of Wagner Bog liedormant under falling snow and rustling dried grasses,their city cousins in Edmonton’s Muttart Conservatoryare basking in tropical bliss. Nestled in greenhouses,thousands of orchids from all over the world are con-tentedly growing, protected from the cold and thethreat of extinction. On a sunny late-winter day, thetranquility broken only by the thunk of icicles fallingfrom the greenhouse roof, Dendrobium delicatum basksin the warmth, its cascades of tiny blossoms releasing asweetly scented invitation to pollinators. In anothergreenhouse, the little yellow-brown flowers ofTrichoceros float on a string-like growth, quivering inthe slightest breeze to attract the tiny flies that wouldpollinate it in the wild.

With more than 5,000 orchids, the majority of whichare species orchids, the collection at the MuttartConservatory is one of the largest in North America. Thespecies in this distinctive collection represent many generaand include species that are rare or even extinct in the

Visit� Wagner Bog (16 species) is 6.5 km west of Edmonton city limits

on the south side of Highway 16 at the Atim road (Range Road270) intersection. Go east on the gravel service road.

� Cypress Hills Provincial Park (14 species)� Lakeland Provincial Park (18 species)

Join or Donate� Wagner Natural Area Soc.: 780 427 8124, wagner@fanweb.ca� Alberta Native Plant Council: ksanders@sandnarrows.com � Orchid Species Preservation Foundation of Alberta: P.O. Box

76040, Southgate Shopping Centre, Edmonton, AB T6H 4M6

Grow Your Own� Grow outdoors (local orchids need a freeze period).� Do not dig up plants in the wild; buy from a reputable nursery

Read� “Orchids of Lakeland” is a free 48-page booklet with colour

photos, drawings and information identifying 18 of Alberta’sspecies orchids. Phone Alberta Sustainable ResourceDevelopment at 780 944 0313.

� Plants of the Western Boreal Forest and Aspen Parkland,by Johnson, Kershaw, MacKinnon, Pojar

� Rare Vascular Plants of Alberta, edited by Kershaw, et al� Wildflowers of Alberta, by Kathleen Wilkinson

Consult the Web� www3.gov.ab.ca/srd/fw/riskspecies/speciesatrisk (Alberta Gov’t.)� www.rbg.ca (Royal Botanical Gardens)� www.telusplanet.net/public/macklam/pages/aborchsoc.html

(Orchid Society of Alberta)� www.nativeorchid.com/articles.htm (orchid conservation)

At Wagner Bog. Clockwise from top: Round-leaved orchid (Orchis rotundifolia), Sparrow’s-egg lady’s slipper (Cypripedium passerinum)and Northern green bog orchid (Habenaria hyperborea). Species orchids are smaller than cultivated hybrid orchids. Many are so tinythat their presence—and importance—are overlooked.

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At the Muttart Conservatory. Above: Display by the Orchid Species Preservation Foundation of Alberta. Opposite, clockwise from topleft: Pleione orchid (Pleione formosana), Lælia crispa, Polystachya pubescens, Phalænopsis schilleriana and Cattleya aurantiaca. With

more than 5,000 orchids, the collection at the Muttart Conservatory is one of the largest in North America.

wild. The collection began in 1991, with the donation of3,500 orchids (mostly species) from the late Lorne Stuart,a Vancouver lawyer and avid orchidist, following a nation-wide search for a home where the collection would remainintact and be cared for. Subsequent donations, including300 from Martin Nussbaumer, an Edmonton collector andgreenhouse grower, have enriched the collection.

A small display of orchids in bloom is featured in theconservatory’s Tropical Pavilion, but the majority are tem-porarily housed in three production greenhouses. TheOrchid Species Preservation Foundation of Alberta, inpartnership with the Muttart Conservatory, maintains thecollection and is in the process of building a dedicatedorchid greenhouse. The new greenhouse will be separatedinto three climate zones that can accommodate 75 specificgrowing conditions (with varying temperature, light,moisture, nutrition and air movement). A state-of-the-artcomputerized system will maintain climate control. Whencompleted in 2003, the orchid greenhouse will be open tothe public on a number of weekends as part of theMuttart Conservatory’s 25th anniversary celebrations, andother times by appointment.

THE WAGNER NATURAL AREA SOCIETY was formed 20 yearsago by a group of citizens interested in preserving theecological integrity of Wagner Bog. Over the years, thegroup has worked diligently to protect the area fromhighway construction, agricultural development andurban sprawl. In 1992, the provincial governmentbought some land east of the bog for a highway inter-change. The society lobbied successfully against thisdevelopment, saving a watercourse that fed into thewetlands of the bog and the habitat of some rareorchids. The society also lobbied the government topurchase some privately owned land to the south,which is an integral part of the wetlands. When theproperty came up for sale, the government bought it—instead of a developer. In June 2001 both parcels ofland were officially added to the Wagner Natural Area,almost doubling its size.

Society president Irl Miller notes with satisfaction,“Frogs and orchids won out over highways and houses.”

Marilynn McAra is an Edmonton-based freelance photographer

and writer.