Late blooming orchid with a flower spike of white, fragrant flowers. Flowers are 1 cm long. The sepals and petals form a hood over the lip, the lip is curved downwards. Has several long, linear to linear lanceolate basal leaves, leaves to 12 cm long and 6 mm wide. Bloom time is late July to late August. Plant glabrous.
Its common name, Hooded Lady's-Tresses, is derived from the twisted stalk which resembles the braid in a woman's hair.
Relatively common in the right habitat - most often bogs, and fens, or wet mossy black spruce woods in light shade. They also grow in large numbers in a moist prairie seep southeast of Regina.
Listed in the guides as growing to a height of 40 cm (!), tallest plant in above photos was 21 cm tall.
The above photos were taken On the edge of a fen in the boreal forest of Duck Mountain Provincial park, July 16th and 22nd, and on July 29th on a moist prairie 60 km southeast 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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