We saw this orchid flowering along Trans Canada Trail in Coquitlam today, and tentatively identified it as the European introduced Epipactis helleborine (Broad-leaved Helleborine). It's certainly an Epipactis, but the flowers were much more densely crowded along the stem than other E. helleborine photos on this site, so we'd like a second opinion. My 1974 edition of Lewis Clark's "Wild flowers of field and slope" describes E. helleborine as "invasive ...becoming common in numerous areas in s. B.C. and n. Wash.", but in 45 years of B.C. botanizing, I've never encountered it before, nor had the hawk eyed friend who first saw these ones last week. Ron B. also said it was invasive; does it prefer a particular type of soil? Those we saw were growing alongside a gravel/crushed limestone path so the soil may have been less acid than usual, although the companion plants were swordfern and red huckleberry so probably still fairly acidic. In this location it probably isn't much risk to native species. Is it causing problems elsewhere in B.C.?
Yes, that is what it would be. There is also a native species but that produces non-white flowers and apparently tends to grow mostly in very particular environments, such as around hot springs - I have never seen it myself. New photos of the exotic species are popping up rather frequently on the internet now, due to other North Americans encountering it for the first time and asking what it is.
