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Other Orchidaceae
especially Platanthera grandiflora and P. psycodes

Orchidaceae: Platanthera lacera (Michx.) G. Don
(green fringed orchid, ragged orchid )

Like all members of the genus, P. lacera has a spur at the base of the lip. In P. lacera, flowers are greenish white or greenish yellow and the 3 parted lip is cut into hairlike sections. There are 4-7 leaves on the racemose flowering shoots, the upper ones grading into bracts. The plants are 20 to 60 cm tall. The species occurs in meadows and ditches and is broadly distributed in Nova Scotia. It flowers in the "first to third week of July on the mainland and extending to the first week of August on Cape Breton".1 P. lacera hybridizes with the two purple fringed orchids P. grandiflora and P. psycodes1 both of which can co-occur with P. lacera in Nova Scotia. Carl Munden comments that hybrids on the mainland would likely be mostly with P. grandiflora due to concurrence of their blooming seasons while in Cape Breton, some hybrids might be expected also with P. psycodes during the first days of P. psycodes flowering.2
Sources | Notes & Refs | Selected Web Resources | Line Drawing

Click on images for larger versions.

July 19, 2007 Halifax County: near Bayer's Lake. Photographer: Heather Drope.
green fringed orchid
Aug. 18, 2005 Halifax County: on hill in Lawrencetown Beach area. Photographer: JackPine.
green fringed orchid

A late blooming plant (most plants at this site had finished blooming).

 green fringed orchid
 

Selected Web Resources

Notes & References

  1. Munden, C. 1999. Native orchids of Nova Scotia. A field guide. University College of Cape Breton Press Inc.
  2. Flora of North America: Platanthera lacera FNA Vol. 26 Page 551. [Accessed 11 Dec. 2007]