Burke: Epipactis helleborine vs. Orchidaceae tribe Neottieae

	Epipactis helleborine	Orchidaceae tribe Neottieae
	broad-leaved helleborine, garden helleborine
Habit	Pubescent, perennial herbs from short rhizomes, the stems erect, 25-80 cm. tall.
Leaves	Leaves alternate, 3-10, sessile and sheathing, orbiculate, elliptic or lanceolate, 4-18 cm. long and 1.5-8.5 cm. wide.
Flowers	Inflorescence a one-sided, bracteate, many-flowered raceme; floras bracts spreading, linear, 10-40 mm. long, often exceeding flowers; sepals 3, greenish, 10-13 mm. long; upper 2 petals ovate, 9-11 mm. long, pale green, pink, purple or yellowish; third petal (lip) in 2 parts, the inner part purplish to brownish, concave, 9-12 mm. long and 8 mm. wide; outer part recurved, pink, triangular-ovate, flat, 5 mm. long and wide; stamens and style fused to form a column 3-6 mm. long.
Fruits	Capsule obovoid, 9-14 mm. long.

	Epipactis helleborine	Orchidaceae tribe Neottieae
Flowering time	June-October
Habitat	Moist to dry forest edge and understory, often where disturbed.
Distribution	Occurring west of the Cascades crest in lowland areas in Washington; British Columbia to California, in scattered locations across North America to the Atlantic Coast, where more common. [WildflowerSearch map] [BONAP county map]
Origin	Introduced from Eurasia
Conservation status	Not of concern
Sibling taxa	E. gigantea
Web links	Local floras: BC, CA, OR, WA Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos, Flora NW, PNW Herbaria WildflowerSearch iNaturalist (observations) USDA Plants Database LBJ Wildflower Center SEINet Plants of the World Online Encyclopedia of Life Wikipedia Google Image Search	Google search

Epipactis helleborine

Orchidaceae tribe Neottieae

broad-leaved helleborine, garden helleborine

Habit

Pubescent, perennial herbs from short rhizomes, the stems erect, 25-80 cm. tall.

Leaves

Leaves alternate, 3-10, sessile and sheathing, orbiculate, elliptic or lanceolate, 4-18 cm. long and 1.5-8.5 cm. wide.

Flowers

Inflorescence a one-sided, bracteate, many-flowered raceme; floras bracts spreading, linear, 10-40 mm. long, often exceeding flowers;

sepals 3, greenish, 10-13 mm. long; upper 2 petals ovate, 9-11 mm. long, pale green, pink, purple or yellowish; third petal (lip) in 2 parts, the inner part purplish to brownish, concave, 9-12 mm. long and 8 mm. wide; outer part recurved, pink, triangular-ovate, flat, 5 mm. long and wide;

stamens and style fused to form a column 3-6 mm. long.

Fruits

Capsule obovoid, 9-14 mm. long.

Epipactis helleborine

Orchidaceae tribe Neottieae

Flowering time

June-October

Habitat

Moist to dry forest edge and understory, often where disturbed.

Distribution

Occurring west of the Cascades crest in lowland areas in Washington; British Columbia to California, in scattered locations across North America to the Atlantic Coast, where more common.

[WildflowerSearch map]

[BONAP county map]

Origin

Introduced from Eurasia

Conservation status

Not of concern

Sibling taxa

E. gigantea

Web links