Orchids of Ontario

Latin: Platanthera psycodes
English: Small Purple Fringed Orchid
Bloom: Early July to mid-August

This orchid grows in wet, open woods and damp meadows, also in wet roadside ditches.

The plants are up to 100cm tall with a long flower head of up to 125 flowers, each the size of a dime. The flowers are usually mauve to lilac, rarely white..

Photographed near Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario
August 3, 2014

In this photo the long, nectar-filled spur of each flower can be seen. These flowers were definitely much paler than on the neighbouring plant pictured above but not white.

Photographed near Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario
August 3, 2014

This is the only purple fringed orchid in Canada and the northern USA. The lip is cut into 3 fringed lobes, making it easily identifiable.

Photographed near Killarney Provincial Park, Ontario
August 3, 2014

Latin: Platanthera blephariglottis
English: White Fringed Orchis
Bloom: July to early August

This orchid grows best in partially shaded sphagnum in black spruce/tamarack bogs. Under ideal conditions there might be a large number of plants. This was a single plant growing in moss on granite a few metres from a bog. I could not see any other plants but did not venture out into the bog.

The plants are up to 60cm tall with a flower head of 20 to 30 flowers. This plant was about 25 cm tall.

Photographed at Torrence Barrens, Ontario
July 27, 2015

The flower head is quite dense. The spur is short, only 1.5 to 2 cm long. The flowers are bright white.

Photographed at Torrence Barrens, Ontario
July 27, 2015

The oval lip of the orchid is fringed, making it easy to Identify. The lips of the Ragged Fringed Orchid and the Prairie Fringed Orchid are divided into 3 lobes.

Photographed at Torrence Barrens, Ontario
July 27, 2015