Platanthera integrilabia
Platanthera brevifolia
monkeyface, white fringeless orchid
platanthera de hoja corta, short-leaf bog-orchid, shortflower bog orchid
2(–3), spreading to ascending, on basal portion of stem, abruptly reduced to bracts distally;
blade lanceolate to elliptic, 12–23 × 1–3.2 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.
rather lax.
lax to rather dense.
resupinate, showy, white;
lateral sepals reflexed;
petals oblong, margins entire;
lip porrect, spatulate to lance-spatulate, without basal thickening, 10–15 × 2.5–4 mm, margins slightly lacerate to subentire;
spur slenderly cylindric, scarcely clavate, 35–60 mm;
rostellum lobes directed forward, spreading, angular;
rostellum lobes slenderly curving forward, slightly spreading, angular-elongate, long;
pollinaria with stalks curved forward;
pollinia remaining enclosed in anther sacs;
viscidia orbiculate;
ovary slender, ca.16–22 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.
Platanthera integrilabia
Platanthera brevifolia
Of conservation concern.
The description of Platanthera integrilabia is based on a limited sample and is likely too restrictive.
Flowers of this species are nocturnally sweet-scented. The vegetative habit is distinctive, with leaves restricted to the base of the stem and a relatively few-flowered inflorescence borne atop a tall bracted scape. In addition to the normal tuberoid, roots often enlarge distally to form bud-bearing tuberoids at a marked distance from the parent stem, giving rise to diffuse clonal colonies.
(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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iNaturalist
USDA Plants Database
