Flora of North America species comparison

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Epipactis gigantea

chatterbox, giant helleborine, stream orchid
Habit Plants to 1.4 m, essentially glabrous.
Leaves

4–14, ovate, ovate-elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, 5–20 × 2–7 cm.
Inflorescences

lax racemes;

floral bracts lanceolate to oblong, 7–127 mm.
Flowers

2–32, rather showy;

sepals greenish to rose-colored with rose-colored to purple veins;

lateral sepals 16–24 × 8–9 mm, apex very oblique;

petals pale pink to rose-colored to orange with red or purple veins, broadly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 13–17 × 6–8 mm;

lip marked with red or purple, strongly veined, distinctly 3-lobed, constricted at middle into 2 parts, proximal part papillose, calli red, minute, warty, lateral lobes prominent subtriangular wings, distal part linear-oblanceolate to narrowly spatulate-oblanceolate, grooved to tip, 14–20 mm, calli near base, erect, orange or yellow, winglike;

column erect, short, stout, with pair of lateral processes, 5–10 × 3 mm;

anther green;

pollinia 2 pairs, yellow, soft.
Capsules

ellipsoid, glabrate or sparsely pubescent, 20–25 mm.
2n

= 40.

Epipactis gigantea
Phenology Flowering throughout summer (Mar–Aug).
Habitat Wet gravelly and sandy stream shores and bars, may occur in riparian willow, box elder, and river birch woodlands or in chaparral, seepages, marshes, wet cliffs, hot springs
Elevation 0–3000 m (0–9800 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; CO; ID; MT; NM; NV; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WY; BC; Mexico; Asia (China, India, s Japan, Tibet)
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Discussion

Two very distinct color forms of this species have been published: Epipactis gigantea forma rubrifolia P. M. Brown, with deep red stems and leaves, and E. gigantea forma citrina P. M. Brown, with lemon-yellow flowers. Both are known from California.

The occurrence of this wide-ranging species in India and Tibet is based on Epipactis royaleana Lindley ex Royle being given as a synonym in a study of the Monocotyledoneae of Karakorum (W. B. Dickoré 1995) and an embryologic study (S. P. Vij et al. 1999).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 585.
Parent taxa Orchidaceae > subfam. Epidendroideae > tribe Neottieae > subtribe Limodorinae > Epipactis
Sibling taxa
E. atrorubens, E. helleborine
Synonyms Amesia gigantea, Helleborine gigantea
Name authority Douglas ex Hooker: Fl. Bor.-Amer. 2: 202, plate 202. (1839)
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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