Platanthera blephariglottis |
Platanthera brevifolia |
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white fringe orchid, white-fringe bog-orchid |
platanthera de hoja corta, short-leaf bog-orchid, shortflower bog orchid |
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Habit | Plants 8–110 cm. | Plants 16–60 cm. | ||||
Leaves | 2–several, spreading to ascending, scattered along stem, rather abruptly to gradually reduced distally; blade linear-lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate, 5–35 × 1–5 cm. |
few, ascending-sheathing, little more than bracts, scarcely reduced distally; bracts often lacking; blade ovate to elliptic-ovate, 2.5–6 × 0.7–2 cm. |
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Spikes | dense to rather lax. |
lax to rather dense. |
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Flowers | resupinate, showy, white; lateral sepals reflexed; petals linear to oblanceolate, apex fringed to nearly entire; lip reflexed to porrect, without basal thickening, ovate-oblong to oblong-elliptic, rarely quadrangular-suborbiculate, margin fringed; spur essentially cylindric, slender; rostellum lobes curving forward, slightly spreading, angular-elongate; pollinaria with stalks curved forward; pollinia remaining enclosed in anther sacs; viscidia elliptic-suborbiculate to orbiculate; ovary slender, 10–28 mm. |
resupinate, not showy, green to yellowish green; lateral sepals reflexed or sometimes spreading; petals ovate- to lance-falcate, margins entire; lip descending or reflexed, linear to linear-oblong or linear-lanceolate, 6–10(–14) mm, margins entire, often with series of low parallel ridges on adaxial surface; spur cylindric or tapering toward apex, 9–20 mm, apex usually rather acute; rostellum lobes somewhat divergent, directed forward, rounded-subangular, rather prominent; pollinaria straight; pollinia remaining enclosed in anther sacs; viscidia orbiculate to broadly elliptic-oblong; ovary rather slender to stout, mostly 6–12 mm. |
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Platanthera blephariglottis |
Platanthera brevifolia |
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Phenology | Flowering Jul–Sep. | |||||
Habitat | Dry to moist open, usually coniferous, forest, sometimes seasonally moist banks of intermittent streams | |||||
Elevation | 2100–2750 m (6900–9000 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
e North America
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NM; Mexico
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Discussion | Varieties 2 (2 in the flora). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
The greatly reduced herbage of Platanthera brevifolia is distinctive. Robust plants may lack developed leaves altogether, with merely a few reduced bracts at the base of the stem and an inflorescence comprising nearly the entire height of the plant. A strong mycotrophic mode is suggested by the occurrence in some colonies of truly albino plants without pigmentation. Platanthera brevifolia largely replaces P. sparsiflora in Mexico and is very distinctive at its northern limit in the United States. Although P. sparsiflora is exceedingly variable in floral dimensions, in habit, and in the number, size, and placement of leaves, the pattern seen in P. brevifolia seems to lie outside this range of variation. With a generally longer spur and very different ecologic requirements, it is here treated at the specific level. Nonetheless, P. brevifolia is reported to intergrade with P. sparsiflora in Mexico (R. McVaugh and W. R. Anderson. 1974+, vol. 16, pp. 254–256), yet the latter species probably does not range there beyond a possible occurrence in Baja California (M. A. Soto 1988). (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 26, p. 567. | FNA vol. 26. | ||||
Parent taxa | Orchidaceae > subfam. Orchidoideae > tribe Orchideae > subtribe Orchidinae > Platanthera | Orchidaceae > subfam. Orchidoideae > tribe Orchideae > subtribe Orchidinae > Platanthera | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Orchis blephariglottis, Habenaria blephariglottis | Habenaria brevifolia, Habenaria sparsiflora var. brevifolia, Limnorchis brevifolia, P. sparsiflora var. brevifolia | ||||
Name authority | (Willdenow) Lindley: Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl., 291. (1835) | (Greene) Kraenzlin: Orchid. Gen. Sp. 1: 639. (1899) | ||||
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