The Newly Discovered Orchid Species Smells Like Hell

Orchids are renowned exactly for their beauty and scent. But amongst 30,000 known species, some break this rule. The most recently discovered orchid, endemic to Yosemite National Park, spreads a foul scent.

It was exactly the stinky smell that attracted the attention of its re-discoverers, as the plant was first collected in 1923.
"I was out surveying clovers one afternoon, and I started smelling something. It smelled like a horse corral on a hot afternoon." said Alison Colwell, a botanist who works for the U.S. Geological Survey in El Portal.

The smell seems to attract pollinating beetles.

"The plant, which is the only known orchid species endemic to California's Sierra Nevada range, grows in spring-fed areas between 6,000 and 9,000 feet (2,000-3,000 ft)," Colwell said.

All nine sites where the Yosemite bog-orchid has been found are in the park, some neighboring areas popular among visitors. The species could not have any commercial value as its minute, tennis-ball yellow flowers are less than a quarter of an inch (0.6 cm) wide, but the rarity of the species could pose a huge risk.

"This orchid might not be showy enough to get the masses lined up all the way from San Francisco to see it, but I'm leaving Sunday to go out there to photograph it," said wild orchid expert Paul Martin Brown.

"The bog-orchid is thought to have persisted in the upland meadows south of Yosemite Valley, which nourished unique plant species because the area never froze under glacial cover." said Colwell.

Park officials did not release details on where the plant was discovered for protection reasons.

"There's concern that it will get trampled. It's a rare and precious resource that we want to protect." said ranger Adrienne Freeman.

When first collected by the botanist George Henry Grinnell in 1923, the Yosemite bog-orchid (Platanthera yosemitensis) in 1923 did not attract the attention, as a similar species grows in the Rocky mountains.

But in 1993, Ron Coleman, a visiting scientist at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, spotted the unusual orchid in the collections and thought it was related to the green bog-orchid.

"It was just a little dry brown thing, but right away I saw several things about it didn't fit the pattern of any other orchid in California," said Coleman.

He and his colleague Leon Glicenstein photographed the plant in Yosemite and sent the photos to orchid expert Charles Sheviak, curator of Botany at the New York State Museum.

He initially believed it was the Rocky Mountains species, but when in 2003 Colwell sent him a dug plant from the meadow, he changed his mind.