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monkeyface, white fringeless orchid

canyon bog orchid, needle-spur green orchid, slender bog-orchid, slender rein orchid

Habit Plants 50–80 cm. Plants 18–100 cm.
Leaves

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–several, abruptly diverging or sometimes ascending, scattered along stem;

blade oblong to ovate or rarely linear-lanceolate, 3–32 × (0.6–)1–4.5 cm.

Spikes

rather lax.

very lax to dense.

Flowers

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 spreading to reflexed;

petals ovate- to lance-falcate, margins entire;

lip descending to somewhat reflexed or projecting, linear to lanceolate, without basal thickening, 3–9 × less than 1–3 mm;

spur strongly clavate, capitate-inflated, or scrotiform, 2–6 mm, apex obtuse;

rostellum lobes approximately parallel to convergent, directed downward, very small, rounded, obscure;

pollinaria straight;

pollinia remaining enclosed in anther sacs;

viscidia orbiculate;

ovary rather slender to stout, mostly 5–10 mm.

2n

= 42.

Platanthera integrilabia

Platanthera stricta

Phenology Flowering (Jun–)Jul–Aug. Flowering Jun–Aug.
Habitat Wet wooded flats, seeping slopes, marshes, sphagnum bogs Wet meadows, tundra, marshes, fens, stream banks, shores, ditches, seeping slopes, roadsides
Elevation mostly 100–700 m (mostly 300–2300 ft) 0–2300 m (0–7500 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; GA; KY; MS; NC; SC; TN
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AK; CA; ID; MT; OR; WA; WY; AB; BC; YT
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Flowers of Platanthera stricta are evidently mostly scentless or only faintly spicy.

The plants here treated as Platanthera stricta have in common more or less saccate spurs, orbiculate viscidia, and leaves that abruptly diverge from the stem, often at angles approaching 90º (this feature is sometimes obscured in sheltered, deeply shaded habitats). The plants described as P. gracilis Lindley are florally typical of the slender-spurred extreme of P. stricta; they differ only in peculiarly reduced, slenderly oblong but nonetheless abruptly wide-spreading leaves. The plants figured by C. A. Luer (1975) as P. hyperborea var. gracilis (Lindley) Luer are not referable to P. stricta but rather are apparently hybrids of P. stricta and P. dilatata. Critical study of the description of Habenaria borealis var. viridiflora Chamisso and an evident isotype show this plant to be referable to P. stricta, although the name has been applied to P. huronensis in the Northwest and to P. convallariifolia in Japan. See also the discussion under 9. P. convallariifolia.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Source FNA vol. 26, p. 568. FNA vol. 26, p. 560.
Parent taxa Orchidaceae > subfam. Orchidoideae > tribe Orchideae > subtribe Orchidinae > Platanthera Orchidaceae > subfam. Orchidoideae > tribe Orchideae > subtribe Orchidinae > Platanthera
Sibling taxa
P. aquilonis, P. blephariglottis, P. brevifolia, P. chapmanii, P. chorisiana, P. ciliaris, P. clavellata, P. convallariifolia, P. cristata, P. dilatata, P. flava, P. grandiflora, P. hookeri, P. huronensis, P. hyperborea, P. integra, P. lacera, P. leucophaea, P. limosa, P. macrophylla, P. nivea, P. obtusata, P. orbiculata, P. peramoena, P. praeclara, P. psycodes, P. purpurascens, P. sparsiflora, P. stricta, P. tipuloides, P. zothecina
P. aquilonis, P. blephariglottis, P. brevifolia, P. chapmanii, P. chorisiana, P. ciliaris, P. clavellata, P. convallariifolia, P. cristata, P. dilatata, P. flava, P. grandiflora, P. hookeri, P. huronensis, P. hyperborea, P. integra, P. integrilabia, P. lacera, P. leucophaea, P. limosa, P. macrophylla, P. nivea, P. obtusata, P. orbiculata, P. peramoena, P. praeclara, P. psycodes, P. purpurascens, P. sparsiflora, P. tipuloides, P. zothecina
Synonyms Habenaria blephariglottis var. integrilabia, Habenaria correlliana Habenaria borealis var. viridiflora, Habenaria saccata, Limnorchis stricta, P. gracilis, P. hyperborea var. viridiflora, P. hyperborea var. viridiflora, P. saccata
Name authority (Correll) Luer: Native Orchids U.S. & Canada, 186. (1975) Lindley: Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl., 288. (1835)
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