BIO-WEST botanist Kari Coy discovered an undocumented population of Ute ladies’-tresses (Spiranthes diluvials) while conducting a wetland delineation of private property in Mendon, Utah. Consisting of approximately 30 individuals, this constitutes the only known population in Cache Valley.
Listed as threatened by the Endangered Species Act, the orchid occurs in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. The Cache Valley population is a geographic link between known populations in the Snake River Valley, Idaho, and Utah County, Utah. BIO-WEST is currently monitoring other populations that occur along Diamond Fork Creek in Spanish Fork Canyon, Utah.