Purple Fringeless Orchis

(Platanthera peramoena)

 

   

 

 

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.

 

Purple Fringeless Orchis (Platanthera peramoena [Gray] Gray)

Identification: Flower purple with a long, curved rear spur. Lower petal 1 to 3 centimeters broad, divided into 3 distinct lobes, apex of lower lobe ragged, but not fringed. Other lobes unfringed. Upper and lateral petals small, pointed upward. Flowers in tight, apical racemes. Stem with a few, small, elongate leaves. Base of plant with large, ovate-elongate leaves. Plant 1 to 3 feet in height.

Distribution: Illinois in the west eastward to Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and southward to Missouri, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Habitat: Purple Fringeless Orchis is found in wet meadows and open, swampy woods.

Flowering period: June to August.

Similar Species: Purple Fringeless is the only purple species of Platanthera without a fringed lower petal. The bottom of the lowest lobe is ragged, but not truly fringed.

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