Hooker's Orchis

(Platanthera hookeri)

 

   

 

 

Color Photograph: NRCS Plants Database, U.S. Department of Agriculture

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

 

Hooker's Orchis (Platanthera hookeri [Torr. ex Gray] Lindl.)

Identification: Flowers greenish-yellow with an elongate rear spur. Lower petal elongate, pointed, about two-thirds the length of the spur. All petals unfringed. Flowers in a loose terminal raceme. Stem naked, without leaves or reduced leaves. Plant with a single pair of round, large, broad leaves at the base. Plant 7 to 16 inches in height.

Distribution: Ontario and Iowa in the west to Nova Scotia and Quebec in the east, southward to New Jersey and the Great Lakes states.

Habitat: Hooker's Orchis is a woodland species.

Flowering period: May to August.

Similar Species: Hooker's Orchis is very similar to Round-leaved Orchis. However the flowers of Round-leaved Orchis are a combination of white and green, not yellow-green. The stem of Round-leaved Orchis has small, reduced leaves. The stem of Hooker's Orchis lacks all bracts and leaves.

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