Erect, somewhat weak stemmed plants. Distinctive, smallish bright white flowers having a pouch like lower lip, with a few purple spots, flowers to 15 mm long. The flower's two lateral petals are white, the dorsal (upper) sepal almost completely covers the opening in the lower lip. The lower sepals are united.
Stems pubescent. Leaves are oblanceolate to elliptical, clasp the stem, alternate, pointed at apex. Leaf undersides are hairy, as are the leaf margins, with a few hairs on the leaf tops. Leaves typically 11 cm long, and 3 cm wide.
Plants are 30 to 40 cm tall.
Native to moist woods in our boreal forest.
Rare, listed as an S2 by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
The above photos were taken June 22nd, moist, mossy spruce woods, boreal forest, central Saskatchewan. This was in an early year however, bloom time is typically about July 1st.
I get preachy here: please don't dig up native orchids to try to grow them in your garden. They are becoming rare in the wild due to loss of habitat and wild harvesting. By all accounts they are also quite difficult to transplant successfully from the wild. If you want to grow them in your garden, there are nurseries who grow native orchids from seed who will sell plants to you.