General: Perennial herb from lance- to spindle-shaped stem-bases, with a few fibrous roots; stems 5-60 cm tall, thick, soft, leafy.
Leaves: 3 or more along stem, oblong to linear-lanceolate, 3-25 cm long, 0.4-4 cm wide, ascending to spreading, gradually reduced to bracts above.
Flowers: Inflorescence a few- to densely-flowered spike, the flowers small, yellowish-green, with bracts; lateral sepals spreading to bent back, lanceolate, the upper sepal egg-shaped to nearly elliptic, slightly hooded at tip; petals egg-shaped to lance or scythe-shaped; lip rhomboid to lanceolate, 2.5-6 mm long, 1-1.5 mm wide, descending, entire, the base not round-dilated; spur 2-5 mm long, club-shaped or sometimes somewhat cylindrical; anther sacs appearing atop stigma, the tips close together or touching, the bases widely diverging; viscidia round.
Fruits: Capsules, ascending to erect.
Notes: Much of what has been identifed as P. hyperborea (L.) Lindl. in BC is P. aquilonis. Some material could be P. huronensis. Collections of P. hyperborea from Vancouver Island most likely are P. stricta. Further field collections are required to understand the distribution of P. aquilonis and P. huronensis in BC.
Wet meadows, grassy slopes, stream and lake margins, bogs, swamps and open forests in the montane to alpine zones; common in BC, east of the Coast-Cascade mountains; N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to PA, NE, NM, UT, ID, OR, and WA.
The table below shows the species-specific information calculated from original data (BEC database) provided by the BC Ministry of Forests and Range. (Updated August, 2013)
