Platanthera elegans subsp. elegans Lindl. (redirected from: Piperia multiflora)
Family: Orchidaceae
[Habenaria elegans (Lindl.) Bol.,  more...]
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Plants 12-73(-100) cm. Flowers pleasantly scented or musky; petals and lip pale green to white; spur 7-14 mm; viscidia oblong, 0.6-1 mm, usually more than 2 times as long as wide.

Flowering Jun--Sep/Oct. Conifer and mixed evergreen forests, coastal scrub, exposed coastal bluff; 0--1700 m; B.C.; Calif., Idaho, Mont., Oreg., Wash.

Plants on exposed coastal bluffs are shorter and stouter than plants in sheltered or inland localities. Plants in warmer interior locations flower earlier than those on the coast and have fewer stem bracts. The flowers are pollinated by noctuid moths (J. D. Ackerman 1977).

A population in San Francisco, California, is also unusual by having basally attenuate stems and by flowering very late (Sep-Oct).