Lip usually with basal dilation moderately to strongly developed, 5-10 mm; spur slenderly cylindric to slightly clavate, 4-12 mm (± as long as lip, mostly within 2 mm), apex obtuse to tapered; viscidia linear to linear-oblong. 2n = 42.

Flowering May--Aug. Wet meadows, tundra, marshes, fens, stream banks, shores, ditches, seeping slopes, roadsides; 0--3100 m; Alta., B.C., Man., N.B., Nfld. and Labr., N.S., Ont., P.E.I., Que., Yukon; Alaska, Colo., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.Y., Utah, Vt., Wash.

Perennial herb 11 - 130 cm tall

Similar species: see page for species

Flowering: May to August

Occurence in the Chicago region: native

Author: The Field Museum

A few plants of this species were found in a bog on the Wolverton Estate about 7 miles southwest of South Bend, St. Joseph County. The area was heavily grazed and it will soon disappear if grazing continues. This species was reported by Nieuwland for Umbach (Amer. Midland Nat. 3: 119. 1913) but through the courtesy of N. C. Fassett the Umbach herbarium at the University of Wisconsin was searched, and no specimen was found. There are, however, specimens collected by Nieuwland in Lake and Porter Counties which are deposited in the herbarium of the University of Notre Dame. The location of this species in Indiana is the extreme southern limit of its range.

Stout or slender, to 1 m; lowest lf bladeless; principal foliage lvs lanceolate or lance-linear, to 20 נ4 cm, the upper smaller and passing into the bracts; spike 1-3 dm, dense or open; bracts narrowly lanceolate, the lowest 1.5-4 cm; fls erect or appressed, white; lip 6-8 mm, blunt, lance-ovate, conspicuously widened at base; lateral pet lance-ovate, falcate, directed forward and incurved under the upper sep; spur slender, as long as the lip; 2n=42. Bogs and wet woods; Iceland and Greenl. to Alas. and ne. Asia, s. to N.Y., Pa., O., Io., N.M., and Calif. (Platanthera d.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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