Flora of North America species comparison

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Cephalanthera austiniae
Cephalanthera austiniae

phantom orchid, snow orchid
Habit Plants pure white, 19–65 cm.
Leaves

proximally reduced to scarious sheathing bracts, to 10 cm, distally reduced to bracts, pure white, becoming brown.
Inflorescences

floral bracts scarious, the proximal often foliaceous, distal usually reduced, lanceolate, apex acuminate.
Flowers

ascending, loosely open orbs, white with yellow markings;

sepals lance-elliptic, 12–20 × 4–7 mm, base spread, curving forward to meet but not touch, apex obtuse to subacute;

petals oblanceolate, arcuate, 10–17 × 3–6 mm, associated with dorsal sepal;

lip 8–12 × 9–14 mm, lateral lobes flanking column, distal end deflexed, yellow centrally.
Capsules

erect, ellipsoid-oblanceoloid, 15 × 10 mm.

Cephalanthera austiniae
Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Mineral soil in dry to moist coniferous forests
Elevation 0–2200 m (0–7200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; ID; OR; WA; BC
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 584.
Parent taxa Orchidaceae > subfam. Epidendroideae > tribe Neottieae > subtribe Limodorinae > Cephalanthera
Synonyms Chloraea austiniae, Eburophyton austiniae
Name authority (A. Gray) A. Heller: Cat. N. Amer. Pl. ed. 2, 4. (1900)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

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