Yellow Fringed Orchis Flowers

Also known as Orange-plume, this showy species is of smaller size than the preceding, being only one to two feet tall. The brilliantly colored flower clusters are conspicuous objects in the meadows and woods where the Yellow Fringed Orchis grows. It shows a strong preference for sandy and dryish habitats. Oval, pointed leaves clothe the stem, as in the other fringed orchises; many flowers are clustered in the terminal spike. Each flower consists of three rounded, reflexed sepals, two narrow petals, and an oblong lip which is conspicuously fringed; the lip projects rearward in a long slender spur. The Yellow Fringed Orchis grows from New England to Florida and Texas, and westward in the north central states to Wisconsin.

PRAIRIE FRINGED ORCHIS         

This is a robust member of the Fringed Orchis group, plants in favorable locations reaching a height of four feet. The flowers, grouped in an open cluster, are very fragrant. The lip is fringed as in the other species of Habenaria already described. The Prairie, or Prairie White, Fringed Orchis is found in wet meadows and open swamps from Nova Scotia to the Dakotas and from Indiana to Arkansas The flowers appear in July and August.

WHITE ADDER'S-MOUTH

The Adder's-mouths are low-growing plants which produce simple stems bearing one or several rounded or oval leaves, and an erect raceme of small greenish-white flowers. The White Adder's-mouth grows to a height of* eight inches and possesses a single sheathing leaf near the base of the stem. Each flower is about half an inch long, with threadlike petals and a triangular or pointed lip. It grows in woods and clearings, mainly in the northeastern states, flowering in midsummer. It also occurs in Alaska.