Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center


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Aquatic and Wetland Vascular Plants of the Northern Great Plains

Platanthera Rich.

Usually stout, erect plants from a cluster of tuberous roots. Leaves cauline, ascending to appressed, sheathing and mostly overlapping at the base, reduced upward on the stem, the lowermost often scalelike and sheathing. Flowers several to many in a loose to congested, terminal bracteate spike, showy or not, white or greenish; perianth segments free (in those included here); sepals greener and thicker-textured than the white to greenish petals; lip ovate-lanceolate and entire or 3-lobed and fringed, prolonged backward into a spur, the spur commonly curved; stamen 1, the anther attached on top of the short column.

Reference:
 
Sheviak, C. J. and M. L. Bowles.  1986.  The prairie fringed orchids:  a 
     pollinator isolated species pair.  Rhodora 88:267-290.

Lead	Characteristic	Go To
1	Flowers greenish, small, not showy, the lip entire.	P. hyperborea
1	Flowers white, large and showy, the lip 3-lobed and fringed.	P. praeclara

69. Orchidaceae, the Orchid Family

4. Platanthera Rich.

1. Platanthera hyperborea (L.) Lindl. -- Northern green orchid

2. Platanthera praeclara Sheviak & Bowles -- Western prairie fringed orchid

Return to Family -- Orchidaceae - The Orchid Family
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