Native orchid with a flower spike with white blooms in July. Erect growth habit, leaves mostly basal, clasping the base of the flower stem. Leaves oblanceolate to lanceolate, reduced in size up the stem becoming linear bracts. We measured flowers to be 18 mm long, lip to 7 mm long. Lateral petals and upper sepal form a hood. Flowers are long spurred. Flower spike to 15 cm long. Plant glabrous.
Native to bogs, sunny locations, boreal forest.
Flowers have a faint fragrance.
Its dazzling-white flower spike makes it quite a striking plant.
Height quite variable, listed in the field guides from 25 cm to 75 cm. Tallest plant in above photos measured 36 cm.
Listed as an S2, rare by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Photographs taken July 4th, on the edges of a boreal fen, Duck Mountain Provincial Park, 300 km northeast of our home in Regina, SK
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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