15 cm ruler for scale
Erect, stout, leafy plant. Dense flower spike, more than 80 flowers on spikes on big plants. Typical length of flower spike is 13 cm. Flwores are yellow-green, 1 cm long, lip 5 mm long. Leaves are oval to oblanceolate, 16 cm long, 4 cm wide (pressed flat). Plant glabrous.
Blooms in June-July.
Found widely throughout the province in bogs, and wet meadows, ditches, probably our most common orchid in the southern half of the province.
Very closely resembles Platanthera huronensis which is found in Manitoba, but as far as I know P. huronensis has yet to be found in Saskatchewan. To distinguish between the two species, you need to examine the flowers carefully with a loupe. The anther sacs of P. aquilonsis converge / touch near their apex (as shown above), while those of P. huronensis are parallel to one another and separate at their apex.
Listed in the field guides as growing from 20 cm to 60 (!) cm. Tallest plants I measured were 39 cm.
Synonyms: Platanthera hyperborea, Habenaria hyperborea.
Photographed these plants June 23rd and June 24th in saline, wet prairie near our home in Regina, Saskatchewan.
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.
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