Yellow Fringeless Orchis

(Platanthera integra)

 

   

 

 

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.

 

Yellow Fringeless Orchis (Platanthera integra [Nutt.] Gray ex Beck)

Identification: Flower yellow, with a rear spur. Lower petal dagger-shaped with a toothed (not fringed) margin. A pair of ovate, unfringed lateral petals. Upper petal concave, helmet-shaped. Flowers arranged in a tight apical spike. Middle of the stem with small, narrow, pointed leaves. Bottom leaves, larger, but similar in shape. Plant 10 to 24 inches in height.

Distribution: New Jersey to Florida and west to Texas.

Habitat: Yellow Fringeless Orchis is found in wet pine barrens.

Flowering period: August to September.

Similar Species: Yellow Fringeless Orchis is the only species of Platanthera with bright yellow flowers, but without a fringed lower petal.

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