General: Perennial herb, from fleshy, spindle-shaped stem-bases, with a few fibrous roots; stems 20-50 cm tall, without leaves, with 1-5 lance-shaped bracts.
Leaves: Pair of basal leaves, opposite or nearly so, often lying on ground, round to oblong-elliptic, usually 6-16 cm long, 3-14 cm wide.
Flowers: Inflorescence a terminal, loosely 5- to 25-flowered spike, bracted, the bracts shorter than the flowers; flowers whitish-green, the stalks 3-7 mm long; lower sepals 8-13 mm long, triangular to broadly lanceolate, somewhat bent back, the upper sepal kidney-shaped to broadly egg-shaped, 4-8 mm long, erect; petals shorter and lighter than sepals, egg-shaped to broadly lanceolate, bent back; lip 10-20 mm long, strap-shaped, whitish, hanging downward with slightly up-curved tip; spur somewhat club-shaped, curved, 15-25 mm long; column 4-5 mm long.
Dry to moist forests, bogs and swamps in the montane zone; infrequent in BC south of 55 degrees N, except rare on the coast; N to AK, YT and NT, E to NF and S to ME, MA, PA, NC, TN, MN, SD, MT, ID 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)
A shade-tolerant, montane to subalpine, transcontinental North American forb (rare in the Pacific region). Occurs in continental boreal and cool temperate climates on moderately dry to fresh, nitrogen-poor soils; its occurrence increases with increasing continentality. Scattered in the mossy understory of semi-open coniferous forests on water-shedding sites in the coast-interior ecotone. Usually associated with Clintonia uniflora, Pleurozium schreberi, Ptilium crista-castrensis, Rhytidiopsis robusta, and Vaccinium membranaceum. An oxylophytic species characteristic of Mar humus forms.
