Listera cordata (Heart-Leaved Twayblade) - photos and description

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General: Tiny orchid, erect stems and with two opposite leaves. Stems minutely hairy.

Flowers: Flowers grow in a spike, are very small, with a deeply cleft lower lip, green to purplish-red in a colour. We measured a flower at 4 mm across, 6 mm long, and a flower spike at 4 cm long.

Leaves:  Located just below or at mid-stem, opposite, broadly ovate to cordate. We measured a leaf at 17 mm long and 16 mm wide.

Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 20 cm, we measured plants to 12 cm tall.

Habitat: Moist to wet, mossy black spruce woods in the boreal forest.

Abundance: Very rare, ranked as an S3 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.

Origin: Native.

When and where photographed: Photos taken June 4th, 19th, and 20th, mossy, black spruce woods in the Porcupine Hills, about 450 km north east of Regina, SK, and June 23rd and July 7th, mossy black spruce woods, about 350 km north east of our home in Regina, SK.