Adirondack Wildflowers:
White Fringed Orchid (Platanthera blephariglottis)

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Adirondack Wildflowers: White Fringed Orchid blooming on Barnum Bog at the Paul Smiths VIC (28 July 2012)

White Fringed Orchid (Platanthera blephariglottis) is a native Adirondack wildflower and member of the orchid family which produces white flowers in summer. The small flowers (twenty or more) each have a deeply fringed lip petal and form a compact cluster at the top of the stem. White Fringed Orchids grow up to 1.5 feet tall, with one to three long, pointed leaves along the lower half of the stem. This plant is also known as White-fringe Orchis. The species name derives from Greek and means "fringe-tongued."

White Fringed Orchids bloom in bogs and acidic swamps in the eastern parts of the US, as well as part of Canada. Their range extends from Ontario east to Newfoundland, south to Florida, and west to Texas.

Adirondack Wildflowers: White Fringed Orchids blooming on Barnum Bog at the Paul Smiths VIC (7 July 2012)

White Fringed Orchids bloom on Barnum Bog at the Paul Smiths VIC, where they usually bloom in July. The plants may be viewed from the Boreal Life Trail boardwalk.

References

• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Native Plant Database.
• United States Department of Agriculture. Plants Database.
• Flora of North America. Database.
• New York Flora Association. New York Flora Atlas.
• NatureServe Explorer. Online Encyclopedia of Life.
• Doug Ladd. North Woods Wildflowers (Falcon Publishing, 2001), p. 201.
• Lawrence Newcomb. Newcomb's Wildflower Guide (Little Brown and Company, 1977), pp. 42-43.
• Roger Tory Peterson and Margaret McKenny. A Field Guide to Wildflowers. Northeastern and North-central North America (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1968) pp. 16-17.
• National Audubon Society. Field Guide to Wildflowers. Eastern Region. (Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), pp. 661.
• William K. Chapman, et al. Wildflowers of New York in Color (Syracuse University Press, 1998), pp. 40-41.
• William K. Chapman. Orchids of the Northeast. A Field Guide (Syracuse University Press, 1997), p. 131.
• Donald D. Cox. A Naturalist's Guide to Wetland Plants. An Ecology for Eastern North America (Syracuse University Press, 2002), p. 89.
• Meiyin Wu and Dennis Kalma. Wetland Plants of the Adirondacks. Herbaceous Plants and Aquatic Plants (Trafford Publishing, 2010), p. 102.