Spreading Pogonia

(Cleistes divaricata)

 

   

 

Color Drawing: Wolcott, M.V. 1925. North American Wild Flowers. Smithsonian Institution.

Line Drawing: Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States and Canada, Second Edition.

 

Spreading Pogonia (Cleistes divaricata [L.] Ames)

Identification: Flowers pink, large, with a long, tubular corolla. Upper lip of corolla bifid and bent backward. Lower lip marked with red and ragged. Upper three "petals" (actually sepals) elongate, narrow, and curled. Flowers solitary at the top of the plant. Stem with leaves both upward and downward. Leaves narrow, grasslike. Plant 1 to 2 feet in height.

Distribution: Southern New Jersey southward to Florida.

Habitat: Spreading Pogonia is found mostly in coastal bogs and pine barrens. However the species is also known from the sandy uplands of Kentucky and southward.

Flowering period: June to July.

Similar Species: The flower is unmistakable.

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