Amerorchis rotundifolia (Round-Leaved Orchid) - photos and description
Patch of many plants
General: Small native orchid, the flowers with purple-red spots on white flowers are quite striking. Plants glabrous.
Flowers: Flowers in a short spike. Flowers are showy, white petals and sepals, the lip with reddish-purple spots, and with two lateral lobes. The two lateral petals and dorsal (top) sepal form a hood over the lower lip, the lateral sepals are spreading. An individual flower measured at 15 mm wide, and 10 mm long.
Leaves: A solitary basal leaf, broadly elliptic, to 10 cm long.
Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 25 cm. I've measured plants to 22 cm tall.
Habitat: Moist to wet sphagnum moss in spruce woods.
Abundance: Common.
Origin: Native.
Synonym: Listed in some of the field guides we use, and some authorities online as Galearis rotundifolia.
When and where photographed: Photos were taken June 22nd and July 8th in the boreal forest, about 350 km north of our home in Regina, SK.