Northeast Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Platanthera peramoena Gray
- Family: Orchid (Orchidaceae)
- Flowering: June-August
- Field Marks: The lip of the rose-purple flowers is merely toothed, not fringed.
- Habitat: Bogs, wet meadows, low woods, wet fields.
- Habit: Perennial herb with slender rhizomes.
- Stems: Upright, unbranched, up to 2 feet tall, smooth.
- Leaves: Alternate, simple, 2-4 in number, oblong to ovate, pointed at the tip, tapering to the base, toothless, smooth, up to 8 inches long, up to 1 3/4 inches wide.
- Flowers: Several crowded into a cylindrical spike up to 6 inches long, up to 2 1/2 inches thick; flowers rose-purple.
- Sepals: 3, spreading, rose-purple, broadly ovate, up to 1/2 inch long.
- Petals: 3, rose-purple, broadly ovate, the lateral two up to 1/2 inch long, the lip petal 3-lobed, up to 1 inch long, toothed along the margin, the lowest lobe with one notch; spur up to 1 1/2 inches long.
- Stamens: 1.
- Pistils: Ovary inferior.
- Fruits: Capsules oblongoid, up to 1 inch long.
- Notes: This species is called Habenaria peramoena by Gleason and Cronquist as well as other recent authors.
Previous Species -- Northern Green Orchid (Platanthera hyperborea)
Return to Species List -- Group 4
Next Species -- Small Solomon's-seal (Polygonatum biflorum)
