Calypso Orchid
Calypso bulbosa
Text and photo by Ray Collett

Status
Several large populations formerly occurred on UCSC campus; only one Calypso Orchid bloomed on campus in 2001.

Habitat
Moist woods and bogs. Ranges through the Pacific Northwest.

Threats
Campus development and resultant openings in the forest canopy, which allow in too much light for the orchid; trampling by recreational users; collectors; predation by increased campus populations of Mule Deer and Steller’s Jays (which eat Calypso bulbs)


Excerpt from a poem by Ray Collett:

Once in his life John Muir got to see a calypso.
He saw it up in Ontario.
Calypsos are extinct
In Canada's Holland Marsh now.

The sight of that calypso
Started him on his writing career
.... was the subject of his first published article.

Toward the end of his life
Muir said he had had two
Supreme experiences. One was
Meeting Ralph Waldo Emerson in Yosemite.
The other was seeing that calypso.

Muir didn't get to see another calypso.
.... wasn't outside enough, lived in the 19th century.
But he could have
Visited the site of the future UCSC campus.
He could have seen hundreds of them.
Calypsos survived there
Until at least 2001.

In 2001 just one remaining calypso
Flowered on the UCSC campus.